LIBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 


MAR  2  9  2005 


THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2009  witii  funding  from 

Princeton  Tiieoiogicai  Seminary  Library 


http://www.arcliive.org/details/groundworkofsystOOspre 


.^ 


X^  0 


THE  GROUNDWORK 


A  SYSTEM 


Evangelical  Lutheran 

THEOLOGY, 


SAMUEL  SPRECHER.  D.  D..  LL.  D., 

PROFESSOR  OF  SYSTEMATIC  THEOLOGY  AND  MENTAL  PHILOSOPHY 
IN  WITTENBERG  COLLEGE,  SPRINGFIELD,  OHIO. 


IN   ONE  VOLUM-E 


PUBLISHED  FOR  THE  AU 


LIBRARY  OF  PRINCETOI 


HOH 


THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARS 


PHILADELPHIA: 

LUTHERAN  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY,  No.  42  N.  NINTH  STREET. 
1879. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1879,  ^y 

Rev.  SAMUEL  SPRECHER,  D.  D.,  LL.D., 
In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


STEREOTYPED  AND  PRINTED  BY 

INQUIRER  P.  &  P.  CO., 

LANCASTER,  PA. 


PREFACE. 


The  reader  will  observe  that  this  Groundwork  is  designed  to 
be  followed  by  a  System  of  Evangelical  Lutheran  Theology. 
It  was  the  object  of  the  writer  to  contribute  to  the  appropria- 
tion anew  of  the  great  principle  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation, 
and  to  the  apprehension  of  the  Christian  idea  of  God  and  the 
world,  of  religion  and  man,  with  the  distinctness  which  is  made 
practicable  only  by  that  great  principle  ;  and,  thus,  to  prepare 
the  way  for  the  construction  of  a  true  system  of  Evangelical 
Lutheran  Theology. 

It  is  published  in  this  separate  form,  because  such  a  work 
seemed  to  be  very  much  desired  at  this  time,  and  because 
it  can  be  used  in  the  study  of  any  other  system.  The  author 
wished  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  Lutheran  system 
admits  of  modifications  in  its  forms,  without  the  sacrifice  of  its 
principle ;  that,  while  in  the  present  ti'ansition-state  of  the 
Church  we  should  not,  and  cannot,  receive  all  the  old  forms  of 
doctrine,  we  should,  and  c^n,  rctniu  and  make  all  the  more  prom- 
inent the  spirit  of  them  ;  that  we  can,  and  should,  do  this  in  full 
confidence  that  the  true  type  of  Evangelical  Lutheranism  is 
most  closely  connected  with  the  principle,  and  most  nearly  akin 
to  the  apostolic  spirit  and  stamp  of  Christianity  ;  that  true  Luth- 
eranism is  not  a  sect,  but  a  bringing  back  of  the  Church  to 
primitive  Christianity,  and  to  a  more  \-ital  and  complete  appro- 
priation of  the  apostolic  spirit  and  doctrine. 

He  wished  also,  on  the  one  hand,  to  strengthen  the  active 
workers  in  the  Church — laymen  as  well  as  ministers — in  the  belief 
that  personal  assurance  of  salvation  and  efficient  labor  for  the  con- 
version of  souls  is,  in  a  great  measure,  independent  of  the  formal 
creed  and  of  the  theological  system ;  that  every  person — the 
young  child  as  well  as  the  mature  man,  the  unlearned  layman  as 
well  as  the  learned  theologian — can  savingly  accept  Christ  and 
effectually  testify  for  Him,  can  become  assured  of  his  own  sal- 
vation and  qualified  to  be  an-efficient  worker  for  the  conversion  of 

(iii) 


IV  PREFACE. 

others,  for  the  edification  of  the  Church,  and  for  the  extension 
of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom  in  the  world.  And  he  desired,  on 
the  other  hand,  to  impress  them  all  the  more  deeply  with  an 
intelligent  sense  of  the  importance  of  the  riglit  use  of  the  creed 
and  of  the  proper  study  of  theology — to  make  them  feel  that  to 
imbibe  the  true  spirit  of  the  creed,  and  to  cultivate  a  true  interest 
in  systematic  theology,  will  contribute  greatly  to  personal  edifi- 
cation, as  well  as  to  the  purification  and  grozvth  of  the  Church. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  for  the  writer  to  acknowledge  his 
indebtedness  to  the  great  German  thinkers  in  the  production  of 
this  work.  He  has  had  his  own  idea  of  the  groundwork  of  an 
Evangelical  Lutheran  Theology,  and  he  has  tried  to  exhibit  it 
without  much  concern  about  the  originality  of  his  materials — 
anxious  only  about  their  truth  and  their  bearing  on  his  great 
object  in  the  preparation  of  the  work.  The  writer  long 
doubted  the  propriety  of  such  numerous  and  large  extracts  as 
he  has  made  from  Luther's  works  ;  but  as  we  are  indebted  to 
this  hero  of  the  Reformation  for  the  first  annunciation  and 
clear  illustration  of  the  great  principle  which  it  is  the  object 
of  this  work  to  exhibit  and  apply,  and  as  his  voluminous  writ- 
ings are  accessible  to  but  few,  it  was  thought  that  these  copious 
selections  would  be  acceptable,  as  well  as  profitable,  to  very 
many  of  his  readers.  May  the  Great  Head  of  the  Church  own 
and  bless  this  faint  effort  to  exhibit  and  enforce  the  bearings 
of  the  great  principle  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation  upon  the 
apprehension  and  construction  of  divine  truth  in  an  Evangeli- 
cal Lutheran  Theology,  to  the  edification  of  His  people,  and  the 
extension  of  His  kingdom  in  the  world. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION, 


CHAPTER    T. 
GENERAL    CHARACTERISTICS    AND    RELATIONS. 


PAGE. 


§  I.  Its  Relative  Position  Among  the  Several  Branches  of  Christian  Theology.  17 

§  2.  Its  Contents '9 

g  3.  Its  Relation  to  the  Christian  Dogmas 21 

CHAPTER    II. 
The  Relations  of  Systematic  Theology  to  the  Symbols  of  the  Church. 

^  I .  The  Proper  Estimate  of  Creeds 28 

g  2.   The  Relation  to  the  Symbols  in  Germany 3° 

^  3.  The  Position  of  the  Church  in  this  Country 3~ 

I  4.   Defence  of  the  Position  of  the  General  Synod 32 

I  5.   Difficulties  in  the  Way  of  Unconditional  Subscription 4° 

I  6.  The  Forms  of  the  Confession  must  be   Regarded  as  Capable  of  Improve- 
ment    41 

I  7.  This  Evangelical  Freedom  is  Necessary  to  Efficiency  in   the  Ministers  of 

the   Word • 43 

I  8.  The  Contrary  Method  is  a  Hindrance  to  the  .Safety  and   Progress  of  the 

Church 44 

I  9.  The  Strength  of  the  Church  Must  be  Sought  in  the  Union  of  Faith  and 

Freedom 4° 

(v) 


VI  CONTENTS. 

THE    GROUNDWORK 

OF   A   SYSTEM    OF 

EVANGELICAL  LUTHERAN  THEOLOGY. 


PART  L 

THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  THE  REFORMATION  IN  BOTH  OF  ITS  ASPECTS,  THE 
MATERIAL  AND  THE  FORMAL,  AS  THE  PRESUPPOSITION  OF  SYSTEMATIC 
THEOLOGY 55 

CHAPTER    I. 

The  Christian  Consciousness,  or   More  Especially  Saving  Faith  in  its 
Independence  of  Science. 

^  I.  Belief  in  the  Common  Consciousness 60 

g  2.  The  Realities  of  the  Moral  Consciousness 61 

I  3.  The  Valid  Being  of  the  Objects  of  the  Religious  Consciousness 63 

§  4.  The  Christian  Consciousness  Especially  Independent  of  Science 65 

g  5.   Science  Must  First  of  All  Recognize   the  Christian  Consciousness  in  its 

Independence "9 

I  6.   Science  in  its  True  Office  and  Prospects  Favored  by  the  Principle  of  the 

Reformation 7  ^ 

CHAPTER    II. 

The  Principle  of  the  Reformation  a  Revival  of  the  Personal  Assur- 
ance OF  Salvation. 

I  I.   Christianity  the  Absolutely  Perfect  Revelation  of  God's  Saving  Grace..  .  73 

^  2.  Access  to  God  is  Now  Immediate 74 

§  3.  This  Communion  Now  Personal— Practicable  for  Each  Individual 76 

g  4.   The    Revelation   in   Christ  Declares  Not  What  God  Requires  of  Us,  but 
What  He  Gives  to  Us;  and,  Consequently,  is  Assurance  of  Salvation  to 

the  Believer 77 

§  5.   Personal  Assurance  of  Salvation  a  Characteristic  of  the  Apostolic  Church.  78 

?.  6.   Its  Decline  in  the  Old  Catholic  Church 7^ 

I  7.   Its  Destruction  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 80 

g  8.  The   Lutheran    Reformation    the    Revival  of  this   Primitive  and  Funda- 
mental Feature  of  True  Christianitv 82 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

CHAPTER    III. 

Luther's  Exposition  of  the  Principle  of  the  Reformation  as  Involv- 
ing Personal  Assurance  of  Salvation. 

^  I.  The  Individual  May  Not  Rely  Upon  the  Assurance  of  the  Visible  Church 
Through  Any  of  Her  Representatives;  but  he  Can  and  Must  Have 
Personal  Certainty  for  Himself. §5 

g  2.  The  True  Church,  Consisting  of  all  True  Believers,  Receives  God's 
Word,  and  Through  it  Each  Individual  Attains  Personal  Assurance  of 
Salvation 89 

g  3.  The  Gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  to  all   Believers,  and  Consequently  they 

have  Personal  Assurance  of  Salvation 92 

^  4.  The  Holiness  Promised  to  the  Church  is  Personal,  must  be  Possessed  and 
Professed  by  Individual  Christians,  and.  Consequently,  they  have  Per- 
sonal Assurance  of  Salvation 94 

CHAPTERIV. 

The  Christian's    Inner    Assurance   of    Salvation  Through    Subjective 

Experience,  and  his  Certainty  of  Objective  Truth. 

§  I.  The  Christian's  Inner  Consciousness  of  Certainty 102 

§  2.  This  Conscious  Assurance  Realized  in  Inner  Experience 103 

I  3.  The  Individual's  Personal  Certainty  of  Objective  Truth 106 

CHAPTER     V. 
The  Right  of  Private  Judgment,  and  the   Sufficiency,  Intelligibility 

AND  Efficacy  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures. 
§  I.  The  Individual  must,  against  every  other  Authority,  Decide  for  Himself 

According  to  God's  Word no 

^  2.  This   Certainty  through  the  Scriptures  is   Practicable  for  every  Christian 

Man ...    114 

^  3.  This  Personal  Certainty  and  Decision  of  the  Individual  is  Indispensable 

to  the  Purity  of  the  Church 117 

I  4.  The  Scriptures  are    so    much  more    Certain  and   Clear    than    any  other 

Writings,  that  the  Christian  Man    must  make  them  his  Only  Rule  of 

Faith  and  Practice 121 

CHAPTER  VI. 
The  Inseparable  Union  of  the  Two  Principles  of  the  Reformation  ;  or, 

r.\ther,  the  Unity  of  the  Two  Aspects  of  the  One  Great  Principle  in 

THE  Production  of  Assurance  of  Salvation. 
g  I.  The  Pre- Reformation  Theories  of  the  Rule  of  Faith 126 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

I  2.  The  Theory  of  the  Reformation 127 

I  3.  This  Unity  is  found  in  the  Adaptedness  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Capacity  and 

Wants  of  Man 132 

§  4.  Application  of   this  Unity  to  the   Interpretation   and  Canonicity   of  the 

Scriptures 138 

§  5.   Results  of  the  Reciprocal  Relationship  of  Faith  and  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  150 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Justification  by  Faith  and  Saving  Truth  in  their  Union  must  be  Distin- 
guished AS  a  Principle,  and  not  be  Treated  Merely  as  Doctrines;  as 
Belonging  to  the  Groundwork,  and  not  Merely  as  a  Part  of  the  Sys- 
tem OF  Theology. 

^  I.  The  Nature  of  the  Distinction 157 

^  2.   The  First  Clear  Apprehension  of  the  Distinction 158 

^  3.  Its  Application  by  the  Reformers 168 

^  4.  The  Sad  Effects  of  the  Deviation  from  It 171 

^  5.   Its  Continuous  Preservation  and  its  Revival  by  the  Pietists 174 

^  6.  The  Defect  in  the  Pietistic  Apprehension 177 

I  7.  Its  Scientific  Exhibition  by  Schleiermacher 180 

^  8.  The  Defect  of  the  Theology  of  the  Christian  Consciousness 182 

§  9.  The  Modern  Tendency  toward  a  Return  to  this  Distinction 183 


PART  II. 

THE  APPLICATION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  OF  GOD  AND  THE  WORLD,  OF 
RELIGION  AND  MAN— OF  THE  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  GOD  AND  MAN— AS 
APPREHENDED  BY  MEANS  OF  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  THE  REFORMATION...    187 

DIVISION    I. 

THE    application    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEA    OF    GOD    AND     THE    WORLD 
IN    THE    LIGHT    OF    THE    PRINCIPLE    OF  THE    REFORMATION. 

CHAPTER    I . 

Its  Application  to  the  Question  of  the  Knowableness  and  the  Incom 
prehensibility  of  God. 

I  I.  These  Attributes  are  Inseparable  in  the  Divine  Nature 198 

§  2.  Objections  to  the  Knowableness  of  God  Answered 202 

f  3.  The  Danger  of  Incorrect  Views  on  this  Subject 205 


CONTENTS.  IX 

CHAPTER    II. 

The  Source  and  Ground  of  Our  Belief  in  God,  in  the  Light   of  the 

Christian  Idea,  as  thus  Apprehended. 
g  I.  Its  Opposition  to  the  Notion  that  Our  Belief  in  God  Originates  from  Any 

Demonstrations  of  the  Mere  Logical  Understanding 207 

I  2.  The  Nature  of  the  Several  Proofs  of  the  Divine  Existence 208 

§  3.  Their  Insufficiency  as  Logical  Demonstrations 210 

§  4.  The  Importance  of  Keeping  Within  the  Light  of  Experience 211 

CHAPTER    III. 

The  Christian  Idea  thus  Apprehended,  in  Its  Opposition  to  All  Sep- 
aration OF  the  Divine  Infinity  from  the  Divine  Spirituality. 
§  I.  The  Requirement  of  this   Idea   in  the  Light  of  Saving  Faith  and  of  the 

Sacred  Scriptures 213 

§  2.  This  Idea  Only  Gradually  and  Imperfectly  Apprehended 215 

^  3.   The  Reason  and  Importance  of  Urging  this  Idea 217 

CHAPTER    IV. 

The  Christian  Idea  of  the  Unity  of  God  in  the  Light  of  the  Principle 

OF  the  Reformation. 
I  I.  Numerical  as  Against  a  Mere  Specific  Unity,  yet  a  Vital  Unity;  Concrete, 

yet  Exclusive  of  all  Polytheism  and  Dualism 219 

§  2.  The  Relation  of  Faith  to  Reason  in  the  Proof  of  the  Unity  of  God 221 

CHAPTER     V. 

The  Christian  Idea  thus   Apprehended,  in  its  Opposition  to  all  Sepa- 
rating OF  God  and  the  World,  and  as  thus  exclusive  of  every  form 
of  Deism. 
^  I.  The  Intensity  of  the  Antagonism  of  the   Theistic   and   the  Deistic  Ideas 

as  it  is  Manifest  in  the  Light  of  Saving  Faith 224 

^2.   It  Deserves  Notice  here  only  because  of  its  Deleterious    Influence  in   the 

Church  Itself 225 

CHAPTER     VI. 

The  Christian  Idea  thus  Apprehended,    in    its  Opposition   to  all  Con- 
founding OF  God  and  the  World. 

§  I .   It  Excludes  Every  Form  of  Monism 227 

^  2.  The  Definition  and  the  Several  Forms  of  Pantheism 228 

^  3.   The  Delusive  Fascination  of  Pantheism 229 

I  4.   It  is  in  Conflict  with  the  Noblest  Impulses  of  our  Nature 230 


X  CONTENTS. 

I  5.  It  is  Inconsistent  with  true  Rational  Thought  and  True  Religious  Feel- 
ing  '. 231 

^  6.   Its  Vain  Attempt  to  Reconcile  its  View  with  the  Bible 234 

I  7.   Its    Declared    Antagonism    with    the    Christian    Idea    of    God  and   the 

World : 235 

g  8.   Encouraging  Results  of  "  The  Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious." 236 

I  9.  The  Philosophy  has  Failed,  and  has  only  served  to  bring  the  Issue  be- 
tween the  Christian  Idea  and  Pantheism  into  the  Clearest  Light,  as 
simply  that  between  Christianity  and  Heathenism 237 

CHAPTER     Vn. 

The  Nature  of  the  all-absorbing  Conflict  Between  the  Christian 
Idea  and  the  Heathen  World-view,  as  they  have  come  to  be  de- 
veloped AND  apprehended  AT  THE  PRESENT  DAY. 

^  I.  The  two  Antagonistic  and  only  Possible  Religions 241 

^  2.  The  Distinction  of  Being,  in  Kind  or  only  in  Degree 242 

^  3.  Moral  Responsibility,  or  mere  Natural  Necessity  in  Human  Action 244 

^  4.  True  Spirituality  or  mere  Intellectuality 245 

§  5.  The  Worship  of  the  Divine  or  of  the  Human 246 

§  6.  Personal  Immortality  and  Divine  Revelation ;   Man  a  Product  of  Nature 

or  a  Child  of  God 246 

CHAPTER     VIII. 

The  Christian  Idea  thus  Apprehended,  and  especially  in  its  Ethical 
Bearings,  Requires  our  Theism  to  be,  in  the  Strict  Sense,  Christian 
Theism. 

g  I.  Natural  Tendency  toward  a  Defective  Theism 248 

§  2.  True  Theism  is  Inseparable  from  the  Gospel  and  Church  of  Christ 249 

I  3.  The  Connection  of  True  Christian  Theism  with  Christian  Ethics 252 

?  4.  The  True  Speculative  Apprehension  of  this  Connection  first  made  at  the 

Reformation 254 

^  5.  The  Pietistic  Return  to  the  Apprehension  of  the   Distinction  and  Union 

of  God  and  man  in  Saving  Faith 259 

§  6.  The  Declension  Resulting  from   mere  Intellectualism 260 

^  7.  Tendency  of  the  Philosophical  Systems  to  Monism 261 

^  8.  Science  cannot  of  Itself  Decide  with  Certainty  in  the  Sphere  of  the  Per- 
sonal— of  the  Moral  and   the  Free 262 

§  9.  Christian  Theism  the  Satisfactory  and  the  Only  Satisfactory  World- 
view  264 


CONTENTS.  XI 

DIVISION      II. 

THE   APPLICATION    OF   THE    TRUE   CHRISTIAN     IDEA    OF     THE     RELATION 

OF  MAN  TO  GOD — OF    FAITH   AND    RELIGION IN    THE    LIGHT    OF    THE 

PRINCIPLE   OF    THE    REFORMATION. 

CHAPTER    I. 

The  True  Medium  of  Religion   in  Its  Origin  and  End,  or  the  Nature 
OF  Religious  Faith. 

§  I.  The  Nature  of  Religious  Faith  in  General 269 

g  2.  Some  of  Its  Distinctions  from  other  Religious  Phenomena 270 

^  3.  Its  Relation  to  Enthusiasm  and  Theosophy 27 1 

§  4.   Distinguished  from  False  Mysticism 273 

§  5.  The  True  Mysticism  of  Faith : 274 

§  6.  All  One-Sidedness  Must  Be  Avoided  in  Faith 275 

CHAPTER    II. 

The  Nature  of  Religion. 

§  I.  Different  Designations  of  Religion 277 

I  2.  Divisions  and  Definition  of  Religion  in  the  Empirical  Apprehension  of  it.  278 

§  3.  Definitions  of  Religion  Derived  form  the  Speculative  Apprehension  of  it.  278 

§  4.  The  Universality  and  Indestructibility  of  Religion 280 

^  5.  The  Contents  of  Religion 282 

^  6.  The  True  Spirit,  Tendency  and  End  of  Religion 286 

CHAPTER    III. 

Religious  Society  in  the   Light  of  the  Christian   Idea,  as   It  is  En- 
forced BY  THE  Principle  of  the  Reformation. 
§  I.  The    Importance  of  the   Union  of  Freedom  and  Authority,  of  the  Prac- 
ticability of  tlie  Development  of  the  Individual,  and  of  the  tjrowth  of 

the  Church,  in  Christian  Society 291 

^  2.  This  Object  Secured  by  the  Principle  of  the   Reformation 292 

§  3.  Christian  Believers  a  Universal  Priesthood  ;  all  in  the  Same  Relation  to 
Christ;  and,  consequently,  all  Possessed  of  Equal  Rights  and  Privil- 
eges      296 

I  4.  The  Universal  Priesthood  and  the  Special  Ministry 298 

I  5.  The  Church  and  Her  Government 300 

§  6.  The  Administration  of  Church  Discipline 303 


Xll  COXTENTS. 

CHAPTER    IV. 

The  Application  of  the  Christian    Idea  to    Religious    Worship  and 
Spiritual  Edification,  in  the  Light  of  the  Principle  ok  the  Refor- 
mation. 
I  I.  The  Idea  of  Worship  and  Edification,  as  Determined  by  the  Principle  of 

the  Reformation 306 

§  2.  The  Great  Deviations  from  the  True   Idea 307 

I  3.  The  Deviation  Resulting  from  Superstitious  Views , 308 

§  4.   The  Deviation  Produced  by  Mysticism 314 

§  5.  The  Union  of  the  Outer  Word  and  the  Inner  Spirit,  of  Objective  Revela- 
tion and  Subjective  Faith,  found  in  the  Principle  of  the  Reformation, 
the  Only  True  Way 318 

CH  APTE  R    V. 

The  Application  of  the  Christian  Idea  to  the  Relations  of  Faith  and 
Science,  in  the  Light  of  the  Principle  of  the  Reformation. 

^  I.   Man's  Capacity  for  the  Cognitive  Element  in  Faith 320 

§  2.   Faith  is  not  Inimical  to  Science,  but  Invites  its  Investigations 325 

§  3.   Science  must  Start  from  Faith;   must  receive  from  it  the  Religious  Idea.    328 
^  4.   Faith  and  Science  are  not  Antagonistic,  and  should  be  kept  in  Union..  .  .    329 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Application  of  the  Christian  Idea  to  the  Relation  of  Revelation 
AND  Reason,  in  the  Light  of  the  Principle  of  the  Reformation. 

^  I.  The  Meaning  of  Special  Divine  Revelation 333 

^  2.  The  Superiority  of  Christianity  in  its  Idea  and  in  its  Effects 334 

I  3.  The  Source  of  the  a  priori  Objections  to  a  Miraculous  Revelation 337 

I  4.   It  Cannot  be  Done  Consistently,  merely  on  the  Ground  of  "Second  Causes."   340 
^  5.  This  Attempt  Cannot  be  Consistently  Made  by  Deistic  Rationalism ;   and, 
consequently,  the    Deist's   Objection   to   the   Possibility  of  Miracles    is 

Groundless 343 

^  6.  Theistic  Rationalism  is  still  more  Inconsistent  in  its  Objection  to  the  Pos- 
sibility of  a  Miraculous  Revelation 345 

I  7.  The  Issue  is  between  Christian  Theism  and  Atheistic  Naturalism 350 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Historical  Evidences  of  Christianity  in   the  Light  of  the  True 

Christian  Idea. 

§  I.  A  Special  Divine  Revelation  necessarily  involves  a  History 353 

§  2.  No  Solid  Objections  to  the  Practicability  of  such  a  History 354 


CONTENTS.  ■  Xlll 

§  3.  Two  Important  Facts  in  the  Question  of  tlie  Authenticity  of  the  Sacred 

Scriptures    358 

I  4.  The  Admission  of  the  Authenticity  of  these  Four  Books  is  Fatal  to  the 
Rationalists'  attempt  to  invalidate  the  Historical  Evidence  of  the 
Miracles 361 

^  5.  All  Attempts  of  Rationalism  to  Explain  the  Evangelical  History,  without 

the  Admission  of  Miracles,  are  Unsatisfactory 362 

^  6.  The  Christian  can  afford  to  wait  for  the  Conclusions  of  Science,  with  the 
Assurance  that  its  final  results,  like  those  attained  in  the  past,  will  be 
found  in  Harmony  with  the  Revelations  of  Christianity 364 

§  7.  The  Natural  Sciences  reciprocally  Modify  the  World-views  severally  de- 
rived from  them,  and  enlarge  the  Theological  view  of  the  Divine  Plan 
of  Redemption 367 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

The  Recognition  of  the  Relation  and  Union  of  the  Divine  and  the 
Human  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  as  it  Results  from  the  True  Christian 
Idea  of  God  and  Man. 

^  I .  The  Incarnation  and  Inspiration 37 1 

§  2.   The   Connection  between   Luther's   View   of   the    Person   of  Christ   and 

Special  Revelation  or  Inspiration 374 

§  3.  The  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  is  Inseparable  from  the  Principle  of  the 
Reformation;  and,   consequently.  Belongs  to  the   Groundwork   of  the 

Creed  and  of  Theology 377 

§  4.  The  Theory  of  the  Inspiration  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures 382 

^.  5.  Whatever  Theory  of  Inspiration  we  Adopt,  we  must  Hold  Fast  to  its  Mir- 
aculous Character 386 

CHAPTER   IX. 

The  Relation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  the  Production  of  Assurance  of 
Salvation,  to  the  Word  and  Sacraments  as  Means  of  Grace,  viewed 
in  the  Light  of  the  Idea  Required  by  the  Principle  of  the  Reform.\- 
tion. 
I  I.  Inseparable  Connection   of  the    Means  of  Grace   and   Immediate    Divine 

Influences 390 

I  2.  The  General  Agreement  of  Protestants  Respecting  the  Means  of  Grace.  .    391 

§  3.  The  Points  of  Difference  between  them  and  the  Romanists 391 

§  4.  The  Points  of  Difference  among  Protestants  themselves 393 

§  5.  The  Erroneousness  of  the   Idea   that  the  Immediate    Influences  of  CJod 

must  be  Irresistible 395 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

§  6.  The  Erroneousness  of  the  Doctrine  which  Denies  the  Immediate  Influ- 
ences of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  makes  the  Power  of  the  Means  of  Grace 
Identical  with  that  of  Grace  Itself. 400 

§  7.  The  Evils  Resulting  from  the  Idea  that  all  Immediate  Divine  Operations 

must  be  Irresistible 402 

CHAPTER     X. 

The  Application  of  the  Christian  Idea  of  God  and  Man,  to  the  Modus 
Operandi  of  Assurance  of  Salvation — to  the  Relation  of  Divine  Grace 
TO  the  Human  Will — -in  the  Light  of  the  Principle  of  the  Refor- 
mation. 

g  I.  The  Idea  of  Man  as  a  Mere  Passive  Subject  of  Divine  Operations 410 

^  2.  The  Difficulties  begin  only  when  Assurance  of  Salvation  becomes  mainly 

a  Question  of  Intellect 412 

§  3.  The  Theory  of  Unconditional  Election  and  Irresistible  Grace 413 

§  4.  The  Theory  which  Makes  the  Word  and  Sacraments  the  Efficacious  Reve- 
lation of  Saving  Grace 414 

§  5.  The  Theory  which  Recognizes  a  Point  of  Union  between   Divine  Grace 

and  the  Human  Will  in  Renegeration 415 

§  6.   The  View  Required  by  the  Principle  of  the  Reformation 420 

CHAPTER     XL 

The  Need  and  Benefit  of  such  a  Return  to  the  Principle  of  the  Refor- 
mation in  this  Age  and  in  this  Country. 

§  I.  The  Great  and  Imperishable  Interests  of  Theology 425 

§  2.   How    Theology    May    Promote    the    Interests    of  Christianity    amid    the 

Changes  of  Dogmatic  Forms 426 

§  3.  The  Affinity  of  the    Principle   of  the    Reformation   with  the    Spirit  and 

Method  of  Science 430 

§  4.  The  Effects  of  the  Appropriation  Anew  of  the  Principle  of  the  Refor- 
mation upon  Science  at  this  Day 432 

§  5.  This   is  the   Great   Task   of  Theology  at  the    Present  Day,  and  in  This 

Country 433 

CHAPTER    XII. 

The  Practicability  of  Meeting  this  Want,  and  of  Realizing  this  Pros- 
pect for  an  Evangelical  Lutheran  Theology  at  the  Present  Day. 
§  I.  The   Present  State  of  Skeptical  Thought  .Affords  an  Advantageous  Posi- 
tion and  a  Great  Source  of  Encouragement  to  Theology  in  General. .  .    435 
§  2.  Theology  Should  Avail  Itself  of  this  State  of  Things 439 


CONTENTS.  XV 

§  3.  Theology  Should  Now  Appropriate  and  Christianize  the  Results  of  Human 

Thought  and  Experience 441 

I  4.  In  a  Similar  Manner  Can  the  Defective  Conclusions  and  Even  the  Erron- 
eous Tendencies  of  the  Past  Become  the  Source  of  Benefit  to  Theology.  445 

^  5.  It  Should  Strive  for  Those  Views  of  Doctrine  and  Those  Forms  of 
Expression  Which    Shall    Exhibit  the   Fundamental  Conception  of  the 

Church  More  Clearly  and  Impressively 450 

I  6.  The  General  Synod  a  Practical  Exemplification  of  Such  Evangelical 
Lutheranism,  and  a  Good  Preparation  for  the  Speculative  Apprehension 

of  it 453 

^  7,  Illustration  in  the  Treatment  of  the  Doctrine  of  Absolute  Predestination.  455 
g  8.  The  Same  True  of  the  Rigid  Adherence  to  the  Doctrine  of  the   Real 

Presence 456 

^  9.  Dogmatic  Interest  in  the  Communicatio  Idiomatum 458 

^  10.  The  True  Intent  of  Private  Confession  and  Absolution 464 

§  II.  Church  Government  Especially  to  be  Developed  Now 465 

I  12.  The  Lutheranism  Needed  Now  and  in  This  Country 467 

CHAPTER     XIII. 

The  True  Principle  of  Division  in  the  System  of  Evangelical  Lutheran 

Theology,  as  it  appears  in  the  Light  of  the  Christian  Idea  thus  Ap- 
prehended. 

§  I.  A  Sketch  of  Divisions  Independently  of  this  Determining  Principle 471 

§  2.  The  Pietistic  Approximation  to  this  Principle 473 

^  3.   Imperfect  Appropriation  of  it  by  Schleiermacher 475 

§  4.  The  Application  of  this  Principle  in  the  Method  of  Division 477 

§  5.  The  Advantages  of  this  Method  of  Division 480 


,^ 


THE  GROUNDWORK 


OF  A  SYSTEM  OF 


EIMGELICAL  LUTHEMN  TEEOLOGi. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Before  entering  upon  the  discussion  of  the  Groundwork  of  a 
System  of  Evangelical  Lutheran  Theology,  we  will  notice  some 
of  the  characteristics  and  relations  of  systematic  theology  as  one 
of  the  theological  sciences. 

CHAPTER    I. 

GENERAL    CHARACTERISTICS    AND    RELATIONS. 

§  I.  Its  Relative  Position  among  the  Several  Branches  of  Chris- 
tian Theology. 

As  the  science  of  the  Christian  religion,  or  the  scientific  self- 
consciousness  of  the  Christian  Church,  Christian  theology  may 
be  regarded  as  embracing  exegetical,  historical,  systematic,  and 
practical  theology.  Conscious  of  her  relation  to  the  sacred 
Scriptures,  the  Church  has  developed  the  different  branches  of 
an  exegetical  theology,  which  have  their  culmination  in  Biblical 
theology.  Conscious  of  the  influence  of  the  past,  she  has  pro- 
duced the  several  forms  of  an  historical  theology,  which  have 
their  highest  point  in  the  history  of  doctrine.  Conscious  of  the 
unity  of  the  doctrines  which  she  professes,  she  has  constructed 
a  systematic  theology;  and  conscious  of  her  functional  activities, 
she  has  produced  a  practical  theology,  comprising  homiletics, 
catechetics,  etc. 

\\.\s  formally  distinguished  from  the  mere  Christian  conscious- 
ness by  the  attribute  of  science  ;  by  its  clearly  defining  and 
2  (17) 


1 8  GENERAL    CHARACTERISTICS    AND    RELATIONS. 

firmly  determining  its  ideas,  fully  and  logically  stating  its 
proofs,  and  by  so  arranging  and  uniting  its  materials  that  all 
may  be  deduced  from  one  principle,  or  from  several  principles 
which  reciprocally  explain  and  support  one  another.  It  is  true, 
indeed,  that  a  system  in  which  all  parts  are  subordinate  to 
one  principle,  to  which  all  may  be  referred  and  from  which  all 
may  be  derived,  is  practicable  only  in  the  strictly  philosophical 
sciences,  and  not  in  a  positive  science  like  Christian  theology. 
But  in  a  wider  sense,  a  system  may  be  regarded  as  a  combina- 
tion of- propositions,  so  arranged  that  they  form  a  complete 
whole.  In  this  sense,  one  of  the  branches  of  Christian  theology 
at  least,  namely,  systematic  theology,  may  be  considered  a 
science. 

It  may  also  be  materially  distinguished  from  the  Christian 
consciousness  by  its  historical  element, — by  the  exhibition  of 
the  various  changes  which  the  Christian  doctrines  have  under- 
gone, together  with  their  successive  developments,  as  in  histori- 
cal theology  ;  by  its  discussing  and  defining  the  philosophical 
and  theological  principles  applicable  to  the  examination  of  the 
sources,  changes  and  developments  of  the  doctrines  believed, 
as  in  Biblical  criticism  and  other  branches  of  exegetical  theology, 
as  well  as  in  the  several  branches  of  historical  and  practical  the- 
ology. Among  these  several  branches  of  Christian  theology, 
systematic  theology  occupies  a  central  position.  Exegetical 
and  historical  theology  are  its  preliminary  and  auxiliary  sci- 
ences ;  and  the  different  forms  of  practical  theology,  its  result 
and  end. 

§  2.  Its  Content. 

As  systematic  theology  is  that  part  of  Christian  theology 
which  consists  in  the  scientific  or  systematic  exhibition  of  the 
Christian  doctrines,  it  embraces  both  the  articles  of  faith  and  the 
principles  of  Christian  morals,  that  is,  both  Dogmatics  and  Ethics. 
Christian  Dogmatics  is  the  discussion  of  the  dogmas  of  the 
church,  that  is,  of  religious  doctrines  as  they  are  believed  and 
professed  by  the  Christian  Church.  It  is  the  science  of  dogmas. 
Christian  Ethics,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  science  of  Christian 
morals. 

In  the  earlier  times,  systematic  theology  Was  treated  as  one 
science;  but  since  the  days  of  Calixtus  in  the  Lutheran,  and  of 


DOGMATICS    AND   ETHICS.  1 9 

Dannaeus  in  the  Reformed  church,  it  has  been  divided  into 
these  two  particular  branches.  This  division  can  be  proper 
only  in  the  scientific  discussion  of  these  different  elements  of 
divine  truth,  and  must,  in  every  case,  be  limited  to  systematic 
theology.  In  practical  theology — homiletics,  catechetics,  pas- 
toral theology,  etc.,  the  dogmatical  and  ethical  elements  of 
Christianity  must  never  be  separated.  It  is  useful  for  the 
purposes  of  the  clear  distinctions,  and  the  rigid  treatment,  aimed 
at  in  the  theological  schools  ;  and  the  separate  discussion  of 
these  elements  of  Christianity,  or,  at  least,  the  notice  of  the 
distinct  discussion  of  which  they  are  susceptible,  may  also 
prevent  some  practical  evils  to  which  they  are  exposed  under 
different  theological  influences  and  religious  tendencies.  In  the 
effort  of  science  to  attain  unity,  there  is  danger,  when  both  are 
discussed  in  the  same  system,  of  making  one  element  so  pre- 
dominant as  almost  to  exclude  the  other.  Thus,  in  the  rigid 
orthodox  theology,  the  dogmatical  element  is  likely  to  become 
so  prominent,  that  when  the  articles  of  faith  and  the  principles 
of  morals  are  not  treated  in  distinct  sciences,  but  are  brought 
together  into  one  system,  the  ethical  element  is  in  danger  of 
being  almost  entirely  neglected.  On  the  other  hand,  in  ration- 
alistic theological  discussions,  the  ethical  elements  generally  so 
predominate,  as  almost  to  exclude  the  dogmatical.  They  may, 
therefore,  be  conveniently  discussed  in  distinct  and  separate 
sciences.  But  this  should  be  done  in  such  a  way  as  that  they 
shall  be  always  seen  to  have  reference  to  each  other — dogmatics 
opening  the  way  for  ethics;  and  ethics  looking  to  dogmatics 
for  light  upon  its  sources  and  its  end,  its  foundation  and  its 
superstructure. 

But  the  spirit  and  method  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  espe- 
cially the  great  principle  of  the  Reformation,  will  always  urge 
us  to  retain  as  far  as  possible  the  old  method  of  the  unity  of  the 
discussion  of  the  articles  of  faith  and  the  principles  of  morals. 
And  while  for  purposes  of  extended  and  exhaustive  treatment, 
and  for  the  sake  of  contemplating  and  studying  the  dogmatic 
and  ethical  domain,  each  in  its  peculiar  relations,  dogmatics  and 
ethics  may  be  profitably  cultivated  as  special  sciences, — still,  the 
perfection  of  systematic  theology  as  a  science  will  only  be 
attained  when  it  shall  have  so  clearly  apprehended  and  so  prom- 
inently exhibited  the  inner  union  of  the  two,  as  to  make  the 


20  GENERAL    CHARACTERISTICS    AND    RELATIONS. 

complete  discussion  of  them,  as  in  organic  union,  practicable 
and  necessary.  The  function  of  the  system  is  to  reproduce 
scientifically  what  has  been  produced  actually  by  Christianity. 
But  Christianity  has  doctrine  and  practice  in  intimate  relation- 
ship, and  requires  them  to  be  in  inseparable  union.  Systematic 
theology  should  aim  to  bring  into  the  most  clear  and  complete 
consciousness  the  unity  into  which  dogmatic  and  ethical  ele- 
ments are  brought  by  the  method  and  order  of  divine  revelation 
as  recorded  in  the  Bible.  Only  when  it  shall  have  done  this, 
will  it  have  reproduced  scioitifically  the  true  Christian  system 
of  doctrine  in  its  full  reality  and  its  completed  truth.  The  best 
system  of  systematic  theology  will  be  that  which  sliall  seize  the 
point  of  union  betzveen  dogmatics  and  ethics,  and  which  shall, 
from  this  as  the  central  conception,  succeed,  at  last,  in  the  com- 
plete treatment  of  them  in  connection  zvitJi  each  other.  The  most 
perfect  Christian  science  will  be  the  system  which  sets  forth 
most  fully  the  Christian  doctrines  in  their  relations  to  life,  and 
the  Christian  faith  as  it  combines  knowledge  and  action.  Sys- 
,tematic  theology  must,  therefore,  for  the  attainment  of  a  clear 
apprehension,  as  well  as  for  the  cultivation  of  a  deep  conscious- 
ness of  the  union  of  faith  and  love,  treat  dogmatics  and  ethics 
together.  While  it  resolves  all  the  articles  of  faith  into  the  rev- 
elation of  redeeming  grace  in  Christ,  and  all  the  principles  of 
morals  into  the  faith  that  worketh  by  love,  all  into  the  adora- 
tion of  faith  and  the  devotion  of  love,  it  should  seize  the  point 
of  union  of  this  homage  and  this  devotion,  that  is,  saving  faith 
as  the  principle  of  a  new  life,  and  make  it  the  great  uniting 
principle,  in  the  light  of  which  all  the  elements,  both  of  dog- 
matics and  ethics,  should  be  treated  and  exhibited.  This  can 
be  done,  as  we  shall  see,  just  in  proportion  as  we  return  to  the 
principle  of  the  Reformation.  In  saving  faith  is  to  be  found  the 
point  of  union  between  God  and  man,  religion  and  morality, 
knowledge  and  action,  dogmatics  and  ethics.  The  great  inter- 
est of  theology  is  to  appropriate  now,  in  the  light  of  centuries 
of  experience  in  Christian  science  and  life,  this  great  principle  of 
early  Lutheranism,  and  discuss  it  in  all  its  relations  to  God  and 
man,  and  to  trace  its  bearings  upon  all  the  doctrines  and  princi- 
ples of  Christianity.  In  this  will  be  found  the  unity  of  faith 
and  life,  of  dogmatics  and  ethics,  and,  thus,  the  basis  of  the  per- 
fect system  of  theology. 


FUNDAMENTAL   AND    NON-FUNDAMENTAL    ARTICLES.  21 

§  3.  Its  Relation  to  the  Christian  Dogmas. 

As  systematic  theology  is  doctrinally  the  scientific  self-con- 
sciousness of  the  Church ;  it  stands  in  close  relation  to  the 
Christian  dogmas.  A  dogma  is  a  form  or  expression  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine  as  it  has  been  settled  and  fixed  by  the  decision  of 
the  Christian  Church  Ecclesiastical  dogmas  are  not  mere 
individual  opinions,  but  determinate  expressions  of  the  belief 
of  a  Christian  community.  In  so  far  as  these  dogmas  are,  thus, 
the  product  of  Christian  experience,  the  fruit  of  the  inner  life  of 
the  Church,  the  result  of  great  and  manifest  revivals  of  true 
Christianity,  they  should  be  held  in  the  highest  regard  by  the- 
ology. But,  as  they  are  a  form  of  Christian  doctrine,  whose 
determination  has  been  made  partly  under  influences  other  than 
Christian  piety,  and  always  by  men  not  inspired  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  they  must  be  regarded  as  susceptible  of  restatement  and 
improvement.  And  as  they  are  human  expressions  of  divine 
truth,  they  must,  as  subjects  of  theology,  be  capable  of  pro- 
gressive developriient  under  the  light  of  the  infallible  Word  of 
God. 

In  reference  to  the  sources  of  doctrine,  these  dogmas  (called 
articles  in  allusion  to  their  relation  as  joints  in  the  body  of 
divinity)  have  been  divided  into  pure  and  mixed  articles.  Those 
which  are  derived  exclusively  from  revelation  were  called  pure  ; 
those  which  were  supposed  to  be  derived  partly  from  revelation 
and  partly  from  reason,  that  is,  those  which  Christianity  has  in 
common  with  reason,  were  denominated  mixed.  The  propriety 
of  this  division  may  be  doubted,  unless  by  reason  be  meant  the 
thinking  mind  as  determined  by  general  revelation  in  contradis- 
tinction to  the  influence  of  special  or  miraculous  revelation.  In 
religion  reason  is  receptive,  but  not  productive.  Though  neces- 
sary to  the  reception  of  divine  knowledge,  it  is  not  able  to 
originate  it. 

The  division  of  doctrines  into  fundamental  and  non-funda- 
mental articles  is  scriptural  and  proper.  But  it  is  applicable 
rather  to  the  determination  of  what  is  necessary  to  the  preserva- 
tion and  grozi'th  of  the  CJiurcli  than,  of  what  is  necessary  to  the 
existejice  of  religion  and  the  salvation  of  the  individual.  Saving 
faith  is  the  belief  of  a  fact  revealed,  the  reception  of  a  person — of 
God  manifested  in  Christ, — and  a  matter  of  personal  experience. 
It  may  be  indirectly  promoted,  but  it  is  not  directly  dependent 


22  GENERAL   CHARACTERISTICS    AND    RELATIOx\S. 

upon  the  form  of  doctrine.  But  in  the  discussion  concerning 
the  reunion  of  the  churches  after  the  Reformation,  and  espcciahy 
of  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed  churches  in  the  17th  century,  the 
great  question  was,  What  doctrines  must  a  man  beheve  in  order 
to  be  saved?  Errors  affecting  the  salvation  of  the  soul  were 
defined  as  fundamental — a  definition  generally  adopted,  at  least 
in  substance,  by  the  leading  divines  of  that  century.  But  when 
this  point  is  thus  applied  to  the  question  of  individual  salvation, 
it  is  attended  by  insuperable  difficulties.  It  is  impossible  to 
make  a  practicable  application  of  this  definition  ;  for  an  error, 
fundamental  in  the  case  of  one  man,  may  not  be  such  in  that  of 
another, — in  the  case  of  one  in  a  higher,  which  would  not  be  in 
that  of  one  in  a  lower  state  of  mental  development.  An  error, 
which,  considered  in  the  abstract,  would  be  fundamental,  might, 
through  ignorance  or  wrong  education,  be  entertained  without 
excluding  its  subject  from  salvation ;  and  an  error,  which  in  one 
set  of  doctrines  would  be  fatal,  might,  in  a  different  connection, 
be  so  restrained  and  counteracted  as  to  prevent  its  destructive 
tendencies. 

Christianity  is  a  fact,  a  divine  power  which  produces  a  new 
life;  and,  consequently,  salvation  depends  upon  the  reception  of 
the  principle  of  this  life — upon  implicit  conmiitment  of  one's 
self  to  Christ,  unconditional  faith  in  His  person,  and  devoted 
surrender  to  Him.  Jesus  Himself  makes  the  belief  that  He  is 
"the  Christ,  the  son  of  the  living  God" — attachment  to  His  per- 
son as  the  Redeemer  of  the  soul — the  simple  and  only  condition 
of  salvation.  And  the  revival  of  evangelical  truth  and  the  ex- 
perience of  personal  assurance  of  salvation  led  the  early  Reform- 
ers to  declare  that  saving  faith  is  faith  in  the  Person  of  Christ, 
the  belief  that  God  for  His  sake  forgives  our  sins.  Salvation  is 
an  individual  matter :  "  Hence,"  says  Martensen,  "  if  we  hold 
fast  the  truth  that  salvation  is  an  individual  thing,  and  yet  are 
not  satisfied  with  faith  in  the  Redeemer  as  the  ground  of  salva- 
tion, as  a  principle  of  life,  either  present  or  not  present,  then  we 
must  either  hold  that  in  this  matter  there  is  something  which 
in  its  individual  application  is  indefinable,  or  we  shall  be  in  dan- 
ger of  reposing  in  a  certain  set  of  propositions,  trusting  that  if 
we  only  hold  to  them,  we  may  be  indifferent  to  everything  else." 
Saving  faith  depends  not  so  much  upon  the  reception  of  funda- 
mental articles  of  doctrine,  as  upon  the  surrender  of  one's  self 


RELATION    TO    BIBLICAL    THEOLOGY.  23 

to  the  personal  Saviour — an  act  of  which  the  young  child  as  well 
as  the  mature  man,  the  ignorant  peasant  as  well  as  the  learned 
theologian,  is  capable.  The  works  of  the  intellect  can,  no  more 
than  those  of  the  will  of  the  Church,  be  regarded  as  necessary 
to  salvation. 

-  The  determination  of  what  are  fundamental  doctrines  belongs 
more  hnuicdiately  to  the  prcsej-vation  and  groivtJi  of  the  CJiurch, 
and  oidy  mediately  to  the  question  of  personal  salvation.  And  in 
this  respect  the  distinction  is  important  and  should  be  main- 
tained. Thus  those  which  have  an  immediate  connection  with 
faith  in  Christ,  the  foundation  and  centre  of  the  system  of  Chris- 
tianity, must  be  regarded  as  fundamental.  Those,  again,  which 
are  necessarily  presupposed  by  this  foundation,  may  be  called 
antecedent  fundamental  doctrines,  and  those  which  are  derived 
by  necessary  inference  from,  it,  consequent  fundamental  articles  ; 
while  the  non-fundamental  would  be  those  which  may  be  denied 
without  destroying  the  historical  faith  or  the  doctrinal  edifice  of 
the  Christian  Church.  And  it  is  a  matter  of  importance  to  each 
church  to  decide,  as  nearly  as  possible,  which  are  fundamental 
articles  and  which  are  not,  in  order  that  she  may  effectually 
guide  the  people  in  the  ways  of  truth,  and  ascertain  how  far  the 
errors  of  other  churches  are  fundamental,  and  how  far  it  is 
allowable,  according  to  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  to  have  com- 
munion and  co-operation  with  them. 

In  this  doctrinal  interest  of  the  Church  systematic  theology 
must  sympathize.  It  must,  indeed,  be  Biblical,  but  not  merely 
Biblical  theology.  While  it  has  points  of  similarity  to  the 
latter,  it  can  be  clearly  distinguished  from  it.  The  former,  like 
the  latter,  derives  its  truths  from  the  Bible.  But  while  the  latter 
simply  tells  us  what  are  the  truths  of  the  Bible,  the  former  treats 
them  in  their  relations  to  the  human  mind.  The  latter  deals  only 
objectively  with  the  revelations  of  God's  Word;  the  former,  also 
subjectively.  The  latter  shows  only  what  the  Scriptures  teach  ; 
the  former,  also  how  these  teachings  have  been  apprehended, 
confessed  and  developed.  The  latter  presents  truth  simply  as  it 
is  given  in  the  Bible ;  the  former,  also  how  it  has  been  appro- 
priated by  human  beings  and  manifested  in  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness. Systematic  theology  is,  therefore,  inseparable  from 
the  Church  ;  while  it  is  Biblical,  it  should  also  be  confessional;  it 
should  not  be  a  mere  progeny  of  the  school,  but  a  true  child  of 


24  GENERAL   CHARACTERISTICS    AND    RELATIONS. 

the  Church.  "  Wherever  the  gospel  is  preached,  there,"  as 
Luther  says,  "  will  there  also  be  children  of  God."  The  Bible 
also  contemplates  the  existence  of  a  Church  which  will  confess 
its  truths,  and  it  declares  that  this  Church  shall  always  exist 
somewhere,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world. 

It  is  by  this,  also,  clearly  distinguishable  from  mere  philoso- 
phy. Systematic  theology  and  speculative  philosophy  are  dis- 
tinct operations,  even  when  they  deal  with  the  same  subjects 
and  discuss  the  same  truths.  The  former  is  a  science  of  faith, 
the  latter  a  science  purely  of  knowledge.  The  latter  proposes 
to  start  from  the  mere  human  consciousness,  the  former  from  the 
Christian  consciousness,  from  the  consciousness  as  it  has  been 
religiously  affected,  divinely  modified  and  determined  by  a  his- 
torical fact,  by  a  sacred  history,  by  the  belief  of  the  community 
in  a  special  divine  revelation,  and  by  the  personal  appropriation  of 
that  which  has  been  miraculously  communicated  by  divine  acts 
of  revelation.  It  is  not  only  a  science  of  faith,  but  in  faith  and 
from  faith.  While  it  expounds  faith,  it  starts  from  faith,  con- 
tinues in  faith,  and  ends  in  faith.  Philosophy  proposes  to  begin 
in  doubt,  and  by  its  own  investigations  to  end  in  certainty  of  truth; 
theology  begins  with  faith,  with  belief  in  the  truth  of  Christianity, 
with  the  reality  of  its  existence  in  the  Church,  independently  of 
all  philosophical  speculations.  In  common  with  philosophy,  it 
uses  all  the  intellectual  faculties.  But  while  the  former  proposes 
to  discover  truth  by  its  own  researches,  the  latter  aims,  in  all  its 
investigations,  only  to  gain  a  clearer  apprehension  of  the  truth 
already  given,  and  a  firmer  hold  upon  that  which  has  already 
been  accepted  as  certain,  and  the  certainty  of  which  has  been 
attained,  not  through  philosophical  acumen,  but  by  the  power 
of  special  divine  revelation.  Its  materials  are  given  from  above; 
not  evolved  out  of  the  human  mind,  not  discovered  by  human 
reason.  Its  truth  is  not  demonstrated  truth,  but  historical  fact; 
truth,  consequently,  whose  universal  validity  cannot  be  made 
apparent  by  mere  logical  demonstration,  but  which  authenticates 
itself  to  the  regenerate  mind  in  a  manner  perfectly  satisfactory. 
Its  truth,  though  above  reason  and  nature,  is  not  contrary  to  the 
fundamental  principles  of  thought,  nor  in  contradiction  with  the 
laws  of  the  natural  world  ;  and  it  is  so  suited  to  the  relations  and 
wants  of  the  soul,  in  its  creatureship  and  its  sinfulness,  that  it 
commands  its  faith.     This  truth,  revealed  from  heaven  and  ap- 


DISTINGUISHED    FROM    SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY.  25 

propriated  by  men,  theology  accepts  and  reproduces  in  a  scien- 
tific form  for  the  edification  of  the  individual  and  the  strength- 
ening of  the  Church.  It  apprehends  tlie  CJudstian  idea  of  God 
and  the  world,  the  Biblical  world-view,  as  the  true  idea ;  the 
Chnsiidin  ^h.\\oso^h.Y  2ls  the  true  philosophy.  While  it  does  not 
leave  the  material,  thus  given  and  apprehended,  as  it  found  it, 
still  its  reasonings  are  not  merely  about  the  truth,  but  upon  the 
truth.  It  stands  not  above  Christianity,  but  upon  its  ground ; 
not  outside  of  the  Church,  but  within  its  precincts.  It  accepts 
its  material  as  historical  fact,  as  truth  resting  on  divine  testi- 
mony, and  verified  in  human  experience;  and  in  all  its  critical 
and  scientific  treatment,  its  object  is  only  to  understand  it  more 
clearly,  to  appropriate  it  more  fully,  to  defend  it  more  success- 
fully, and  to  proclaim  it  more  powerfully  and  effectually.  While 
speculative  philosophy,'  though  dealing  with  the  same  subjects, 
aims  only  at  promoting  the  interests  of  science,  systematic  the- 
ology aims  also  and  mainly  to  promote  the  interests  of  religion. 
Like  all  true  science,  it  is  objective  as  well  as  subjective  ;  not 
simply  the  manifestation  of  the  spiritual  state  of  the  individual 
theologian,  but  the  organ  of  the  whole  Church  of  God ;  not 
objective,  indeed,  like  the  sciences  of  law  and  history,  in  which 
the  science  is  in  a  great  measure  independent  of  the  habitus 
or  character  of  the  subject — in  the  one  case  of  the  lawyer's 
personal  consciousness  of  the  law,  and,  in  the  other,  of  the  his- 
torian's personal  consciousness  of  the  facts.  It  is  more  subjec- 
tive than  these ;  because  it  is  necessarily  the  scientific  form  of 
the  theologian's  personal  consciousness  of  Christianity.  But  it  is 
not  merely  this.  It  is  objective  also,  in  the  sense  that  the  theo- 
logian's consciousness  is  determined  by  Christianity  and  directed 
to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  triumph  of  the  Church.  Its  object- 
ivity consists  in  its  being  not  only  the  science  of  the  theologian's 
individual  consciousness,  but  also  the  science  of  the  general 
consciousness  of  the  Christian  Church. 

As  revealed  truth  is  not  dependent  for  its  saving  pozver  and 
efficacy  upon  the  logical  form  of  doctrine  ;  and  as  dogmas  are 
not  iuiuiediately  necessary  to  personal  salvation  and  the  existence 
of  the  Church,  but  only  to  the  edification  of  the  individual,  and 
the  preservation  and  growth  of  the  Church  ;  so  theology — the 
organ  of  these  formulations — is  necessary  immediately  only  for 
the  enlightenment  of  believers  and  for  the  cultivation  and  exten- 


26  GENERAL   CHARACTERISTICS    AND    RELATIONS. 

sion  of  the  Church.  These  ah'eady  exist,  and  will  exist,  inde- 
pendently of  dogmatic  forms  and  scientific  labors — exist  by  the 
inherent  power,  the  vital  energy,  the  saving  efficacy  of  the 
truth  in  its  divinely  independent  character  ;  and,  consequently, 
theology  is  only  mediately  necessary  for  the  salvation  of  the 
soul  and  the  existence  of  the  Church.  It  should,  therefore, 
have  such  confidence  in  the  divine  foundation  of  the  Church  and 
kingdom  of  Christ,  in  the  indestructible  existence  of  Christianity 
as  the  power  of  God,  in  the  vital  energy  of  the  truth  in  its  rela- 
tions to  man,  that  it  will  cheerfully  and  hopefully  cherish  the 
spirit  of  Christian  union  and  catholicity ;  while  it  carefully 
avoids  all  unevangelical  latitudinarianism,  and  heartily  despises 
all  cold  indifference  to  the  saving  truths  of  the  Gospel.  While 
it  endeavors  to  preserve  the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bonds  of 
peace,  it  must,  in  order  clearly  and  specifically  to  profess  the 
name  of  Christ,  and  successfully  to  labor  for  the  promotion  of 
the  truth,  be  associated  with  the  visible  Church  in  some  one  of 
the  branches  into  which  it  is  now  divided.  It  must  labor  in  the 
more  immediate  service  of  a  particular  church,  and  contemplate 
the  Christian  dogmas  more  especially  from  some  particular  eccle- 
siastical point  of  view.  It  should  be  by  all  means  Christian — 
first  of  all  Christian  in  its  spirit ;  then  Protestant,  in  its  devo- 
tion to  the  great  principle  of  the  Reformation ;  then  Denomina- 
tional, in  the  exhibition  of  that  type  of  Christianity  which  it 
believes  to  be  most  scriptural  in  its  character  and  best  adapted 
to  the  edification  of  the  soul  and  the  growth  of  the  Church.  It 
should  take  into  consideration  the  confessional  differences  in 
the  Church  at  large,  and  bring  to  view  the  peculiarity  of  the 
creed  to  which  it  belongs.  But  it  should  also  take  notice  of  the 
defects  and  corruptions  of  its  own  denomination,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  cherish  a  disposition  to  acknowledge  the  truth  and 
recognize  the  excellencies  of  many  of  the  peculiarities  of  other 
churches,  to  consider  the  relations  which  doctrines  of  a  non- 
fundamental  character  entertained  by  them — the  truth  of  which 
we  cannot  perceive — may  yet  have  to  the  preservation  and  pro- 
motion of  elements  or  interests  of  Christianity,  precious  alike  to 
them  and  to  us,  but  which  might  not  have  been  so  fully  pre- 
served and  promoted  by  our  system  alone.  It  should  thus 
entertain  the  motives  and  study  the  possible  conditions  under 
which  a  true  and  permanent  reconciliation  of  the  antagonisms 


SPIRIT   OF    CHRISTIAN    UNION,  2/ 

between  the  churches  might  be  attained,  and  to  cherish  the 
means  by  which  they  might  be  so  transcended  as  to  effect  that 
union  of  Christian  professors  on  scientific  and  ecclesiastical 
grounds  which  has  all  along  been  accomplished  in  spirit  by  the 
true  children  of  God  all  over  the  world. 


C  H  7\  P  T  E  R     II. 

THE    RELATIONS  OF   SYSTEMATIC   THEOLOGY    TO    THE    SYMBOLS    OF 

OUR    CHURCH. 

§  I .  The  Proper  Estimate  of  Creeds. 
It  has  been  truthfully  remarked  that  "  general  statements  of 
Christian  doctrine  satisfy  two  extremes  of  religious  character. 
They  are  sufficient  for  a  warm  and  glowing  piety,  which,  be- 
cause it  already  holds  the  truth  in  all  its  meaning  and  compre- 
hensiveness within  the  depths  of  a  believing  spirit,  can  dispense 
with  technical  and  scientific  statements.  They  are  satisfactory 
to  a  cold  and  lifeless  religionism,  which,  because  it  rejects  the 
essential  truths  in  the  depths  of  an  unbelieving  spirit,  prefers  an 
inexact  phraseology,  because  of  the  facility  with  which  it  may 
be  twisted  and  tortured  to  its  own  real  preconceptions  and  preju- 
dices. The  absence  of  scientific  knowledge  is  characteristic, 
consequently,  either  of  the  most  devout  or  the  most  rationalistic 
periods  in  Church  history."  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  as  Christi- 
anity is  a  life — "  In  Him  was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of 
men" — its  saving  truth  is  not  dependent  for  its  efficacy  upon  the 
formulated  statements  of  the  creed.  But  at  the  same  time  it  is 
true,  also,  that  the  sincere  professor  of  Christianity  will  recog- 
nize that  truth  in  the  forms  of  the  creed  when  they  are  pre- 
sented. As  long,  indeed,  as  the  particular  denominations  exist, 
this  will  be  done  in  different  ways.  The  belief  of  the  people  in 
each  of  them,  though  equally  evangelical,  will  be  of  a  particu- 
lar type  ;  it  will  have  been  moulded  in  some  measure  by  the  pe- 
culiarities of  its  confession  and  modes  of  worship.  The  promo- 
tion of  piety,  therefore,  in  a  denomination,  requires  theology  to 
have  respect  for  these  facts.  And  as  long  as  the  several  denom- 
inations cannot  agree  upon  a  creed  sufficiently  comprehensive  to 
embrace  not  only  fundamental  but  other  important  doctrines, 
and  so  detailed  and  explicit  as  to  express  and  confess  evangeli- 
cal truth  in  all  its  power  and  fulness,  the  distinct  and  definite 
statements  of  a  particular  creed  will  be  acceptable  to  the  sincere 
lover  of  Christian  truth,  and  welcome  to  the  spirit  of  true  piety, 

(28) 


USE   AND    ABUSE    OF    CREEDS.  29 

as  a  guard  against  a  dangerous  indifference  to  the  truth  or  false- 
hood of  doctrines.  But  in  doing  this  we  must  not  disregard  the 
distinction  between  the  saving  power  and  the  mere  intellectual 
form  of  the  truth.  The  gospel,  as  we  shall  see,  is  a  revelation 
of  divine  realties  and  divine  acts  in  the  work  of  redemption — 
of  laws  of  life  and  movements  of  spirit — which  can  never  be 
brought  into  a  comprehensive  intellectual  apprehension,  can 
never  be  expressed  fully  in  logical  formulas  or  reduced  to  a 
completed  system  of  dogmas.  The  difference  between  the  Chris- 
tian consciousness  and  the  logical  understanding,  between  doc- 
trines which  are  not  fundamental  and  those  which  are  essential 
to  the  preservation  and  growth  of  the  Church,  should  be  care- 
fully observed.  These  different  elements  and  relations  of  truth 
should  not  be  so  commingled  as  to  make  phases  of  doctrine 
and  points  of  difference  causes  of  division,  in  regard  to  which  a 
due  observance  of  this  distinction  would  enable  us  to  see  that 
different  aspects  of  opinion  might  properly  be  tolerated  in  the 
same  denomination.  This  was  the  idea  of  Spener ;  and  hence 
he  regarded  the  symbols  of  the  Church  as  only  relatively  and 
not  absolutely  necessary,  as  not  of  primary  but  only  of  second- 
ary importance.  Creeds  should  not,  therefore,  be  neglected  or 
despised,  on  the  one  hand,  nor  should  they,  on  the  other,  be 
allowed  to  have  undue  weight,  or  to  be  unconditionally  enforced. 
Only  the  substance  of  the  faith,  the  great  system  of  doctrine, 
and  not  the  individual  clauses  and  details  of  the  creed,  should 
be  made  unconditionally  binding.  When  they  are  enforced 
beyond  this,  they  drive  out  many  of  the  best  men,  and  hinder 
many  of  the  most  conscientious  from  coming  in,  and  thus  fill 
the  Church,  at  last,  with  bigots  on  the  one  hand,  who  will 
repress  all  spiritual  life  and  freedom,  and  on  the  other  hand,  with 
careless  men  who  are  really  as  indifferent  to  truth  as  they  are  to 
godliness — men  who  can  subscribe  any  creed,  caring  only  for 
the  form  of  religion,  while  they  deny  its  power.  And  thus  en- 
forced they  hinder  the  preservation  and  growth  of  the  Church, 
by  preventing  the  development  of  the  theological  apprehension, 
as  well  as  progress  in  the  practical  appropriation  of  the  truth. 
This  progress  is  practicable  and  necessary  for  the  Church. 
Spener,  in  his  modesty,  considered  himself  a  pigmy  as  compared 
with  Luther,  but  he  says:  "A  pigmy  standing  upon  the  shoul- 
ders of  a  giant,  can  see  still  farther  than  a  giant,  though   the 


30  RELATIONS    TO    THE   SYMBOLS    OF    OUR    CHURCH. 

giant  still  remains  a  giant,  and  the  pigmy  a  pigmy."  Many  of 
the  dogmas  of  a  past  age.  can  now,  under  the  light  of  centuries 
of  experience,  be  understood  in  a  wider  and  fuller  sense;  and 
from  the  more  thorough  investigations  of  the  Scriptures  since 
made,  much  may  be  added  to  them, — all  of  which  is  prevented 
by  a  stringent  enforcement  of  the  details  of  creeds.  So  it 
hinders  unity  in  the  same  denomination.  Those  who  attempt  it, 
not  only  produce  division  in  the  Church,  but  are  only  the  more 
divided  among  themselves  ;  soon  separating  into  distinct  and 
antagonistic  parties,  each  denouncing  and  unchurching  the 
others,  and  claiming  to  be  the  only  true  confessor  of  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Church.  But  as  we  profess  to  belong  to  the  Evan- 
gelical Lutheran  Church,  and  to  labor  more  particularly  in  her 
connection,  we  should  contemplate  the  Christian  dogmas  from 
the  standpoint  not  only  of  Christianity  in  general,  and  of  Pro- 
testantism at  large,  but  also  of  our  own  particular  branch  of 
Protestant  Christianity.  We  must  therefore  pay  some  attention 
to  the  relations  of  systematic  theology  to  the  symbols  of  our 
Church.  In  what  relation  does  this  spirit,  so  devout  and 
churchly,  and  at  the  same  time  so  free  and  progressive,  stand  to 
the  Lutheran  creeds  ? 

§  2.  The  Relation  to  the  Symbols  in  Germany. 
The  Views  of  the  Early  Reformers. 
For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  the  beginning  of 
the  Reformation,  no  unconditional  subscription  to  human  creeds 
was  required.  Only  the  two  great  principles  of  the  Reforma- 
tion were  considered  binding.  At  the  Diet  of  Spire  (1529), 
against  the  requirement  of  their  opponents  that  they  should 
yield  to  the  majority,  the  Evangelical  Protestants  maintained  the 
rights  of  the  individual  conscience,  declaring,  "  That  in  matters 
concerning  the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  souls,  each  of 
us  must  stand  before  God  and  give  account  for  himself,  and 
that,  consequently,  in  this  case,  no  man  can  excuse  himself 
upon  the  ground  of  what  others  have  done  or  concluded, 
whether  a  minority  or  a  majority."  And  they  also  affirm  the 
intelligibility  and  sufficiency  of  the  sacred  Scriptures  as  the  only 
rule  of  faith  and  practice,  declaring,  "  That  there  is  no  sure  doc- 
trine but  such  as  is  conformable  to  the  word ;  that  the  Lord 
forbids  the  teaching  of  any  other  doctrine ;  that  each  text  of  the 


THE    EARLY    LUTHERANS    AND    THE    PIETISTS.  3 1 

Holy  Scriptures  ought  to  be  explained  by  other  and  clearer 
texts  ;  that  this  Holy  Book  is,  in  all  things  necessary  for  the 
Christian,  easy  of  understanding,  and  calculated  to  scatter  the 
darkness."  Having  thus  affirmed  the  self-interpreting  character 
of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  they  continue  :  "  We  are  resolved  with 
the  grace  of  God  to  maintain  the  pure  and  exclusive  preaching 
of  His  only  word,  such  as  it  is  contained  in  the  biblical  books 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  without  adding  anything 
thereto  that  may  be  contrary  to  it.  This  word  is  the  only 
truth  ;  it  is  the  sure  rule  of  all  doctrine  and  of  all  life,  and  can 
never  fail  or  deceive  us.  He  who  builds  on  this  foundation 
shall  stand  against  all  the  powers  of  hell,  while  all  human  vani- 
ties that  are  set  up  against  it  shall  fall  before  the  face  of  God." 
In  the  Augsburg  Confession,  delivered  the  following  year,  and 
signed  by  the  very  same  persons,  this  protest  made  at  Spire 
was  explicitly  recognized  and  confirmed.  And  there  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  any  recognition  of  human  creeds  as  uncon- 
ditionally binding,  until  the  conclusion  of  the  religious  peace 
(1555),  that  is,  thirty-eight  years  after  the  beginning  of  the  Re- 
formation. From  that  time,  and  especially  after  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  Formula  of  Concord  (1580),  a  stringent  enforcement 
of  the  symbols  prevailed  in  the  Fatherland  until  the  days  of 
Spener. 

The  Tendencies  of  Pietism. 
The  pietistic  revival  of  the  evangelical  spirit  of  the  early 
period  of  the  Reformation,  gave  an  impulse  to  true  views  of  this 
subject  which  has  never  yet  expended  its  force.  By  its  strong 
scriptural  tendencies  and  its  high  estimation  of  experimental 
rehgion,  pietism  reduced  the  obligation  of  the  symbols  to  a 
mere  conditional  necessity.  Thus,  while  Spener  had  no  personal 
difficulty  in  subscribing  the  symbols  {qiiici)  because  they  are 
agreeable  to  the  Scriptures,  he  preferred  that  others  should  be 
allowed  to  use  the  term  quatcnns  as  a  qualification  of  the  form 
of  subscription.  He  says  indeed :  "  We  cannot  maintain  that 
everything  in  the  symbolical  books  is  so  expressed  that  those 
who  composed  them,  if  they  were  still  alive,  and  had  their 
attention  called  to  this  and  that  inapt  word  and  expression, 
would  not  be  ready  themselves,  as  much  as  they  were  able,  to 
alter  them ;  and,  consequently,  they  could  not  have  desired  that 
every  one  should  be  bound  by  oath  to  all  their  words." 


32  RELATIONS    TO    THE   SYMBOLS    OF    OUR    CHURCH. 

§  3.  TJie  Position  of  the  CJuircli  in  this  Country. 
The  Evangelical  Lutheran  church  in  this  country  is  the  child 
of  pietism.  Its  founders,  coming,  as  they  did,  from  that  pecu- 
liar religious  development  in  Germany — coming,  as  they  did,  from 
Halle,  the  very  centre  of  this  movement — held  the  views  in  ref- 
erence to  the  symbols  common  to  the  Evangelical  pietists  of 
that  day.  For  a  long  time  there  was  only  a  reference  to  the 
symbols  as  containing  the  system  of  doctrine  inculcated  by  the 
Evangelical  Lutheran  Church.  The  General  Synod  of  the 
Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  in  the  United  States  was  the  first 
Lutheran  ecclesiastical  body  which,  in  this  country,  required  a 
distinct  recognition  of  the  Augsburg  Confession.  This  it  did, 
after  all  public  recognition  of  creeds  and  subscription  to  them, 
had  been  for  a  long  time  neglected.  And,  at  first,  it  required 
only  subscription  to  the  declaration  :  "  That  the  doctrines  of 
God's  Holy  Word  are  set  forth  in  the  twenty-one  doctrinal  arti- 
cles of  the  Augsburg  Confession  in  a  manner  substantially  cor- 
rect." At  present  its  doctrinal  basis  is  the  following :  "  We 
receive  the  Word  of  God  as  contained  in  the  canonical  books  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  as  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith 
and  practice,  and  the  Augsburg  Confession  as  a  correct  exhibi- 
tion of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Divine  Word  and  of  the 
faith  of  our  church  founded  in  that  Word." 

§  4.  Defence  of  the  Position  of  the  General  Synod. 

The  Church  in  this  country,  as  represented  by  the  General 
Synod,  has  had  its  history  within  in  the  limits  of  this  relation  to 
the  symbols,  and  it  has,  on  this  ground,  established  its  own 
government  and  discipline.  It  has  had  an  independent  history, 
and  has  its  own  historical  rights  independently  of  the  history  of 
other  branches  of  Lutheranism.  But  as  other  Lutheran  bodies 
have  since  been  organized  on  the  principle  of  the  most  stringent 
obligation  to  all  of  the  symbols,  regarding  them  as  binding  not 
only  in  substance  but  in  all  their  doctrinal  forms,  requiring  them 
to  be  understood  and  received  in  one  and  the  same  sense,  and 
calling  in  question  the  rights  of  all  who  refuse  to  comply  with 
this  demand,  it  is  desirable  to  say  a  word  in  justification  of  the 
attitude  of  the  General  Synod  in  this  matter ;  and 

I.  She  is  right  in  receiving  only  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  the  only 
infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  and  thus  implying  the  falli- 
bility of  all  mere  human  utterances  of  truth. 


FALLIBILITY    OF    ALL    CREEDS.  33 

As  creeds  are  the  expressions  of  the  consciousness  of  a  com- 
munity of  men — even  though  it  be  a  community  of  Christians 
— they  necessarily  include  human  elements  not  guided  by  divine 
inspiration,  and,  consequently,  fallible  elements.  They  must, 
therefore,  be  subordinate  to  the  authority  of  the  inspired  Scrip- 
tures, and  must  be  expounded  in  its  light.  This  is  universally 
acknowledged  as  a  Lutheran  principle.  The  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion itself  teaches  this.  It  subordinates  itself  to  the  test  of  the 
sacred  Scriptures  as  the  only  criterion  of  all  articles  of  faith. 
And  it  anticipates  that  this  exposition  and  testing  shall  be  made. 
It  implies  a  continued  discussion  of  doctrines,  and'  at  its  close 
contemplates  further  utterances  as  in  prospect,  should  anything 
be  found  to  have  been  omitted.  Assured  of  the  certainty  of 
saving;,. truth  independently  of  all  human  formulas,  its  authors 
did  not  need  nor  desire  any  unchangeable  human  creed.  They 
could  not,  consequently,  have  regarded  their  confession  as  a  full 
and  final  expression  or  declaration  of  all  Christian  truth,  any 
more  than  Luther  could  have  so  regarded  his  Schmalcald  arti- 
cles, in  the  third  part  of  which  there  is  given  a  list  of  articles — 
and  some  of  no  small  importance — which  are  left  open  for  dis- 
cussion. The  fact  that  the  Lutheran  Protestants  were  ready  to 
deliver  new  and  additional  confessions,  shows  that  they  did  not 
regard  any  of  them  unalterable  or  as  unconditionally -binding  on 
themselves  or  others.  And  what  is  thus  implied  we  have  ex- 
plicitly manifest  in  the  fact  that  "  Seven  years  after  the  Augs- 
burg Confession  was  given,  namely,  in  1537,  the  Protestant 
princes  directed  their  theologians,  at  the  Convention  of  Torgau, 
to  re-examine  the  Augsburg  Confession  by  the  sacred  Scriptures, 
and  to  alter  whatever  might  be  found  in  it  inconsistent  with  that 
infallible  rule." 

Indeed,  the  principle  of  Lutheran  Protestantism,  which  rejects 
the  doctrine  of  the  infallibility  of  the  Church,  necessarily  in- 
volves the  fallibility  of  all  creeds  of  the  Church.  It  im- 
plies not  only  the  possibility  but  the  actuality  of  error  in  all 
confessions,  and,  consequently,  in  their  own.  Having  declared 
the  confessional  utterances  of  the  Church  during  hundreds  of 
years  of  her  existence  to  have  been  fallible,  they  could  not  have 
put  forth  their  own  statements  of  doctrine  as  free  from  all  error. 
They  knew  that  tlieir  principles  zvere  infallibly  true,  namely,  that 
the  gospel  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that 
3 


34  RELATIONS    TO    THE   SYMBOLS    OF    OUR    CHURCH. 

believeth,  that  forgiveness  of  sin,  justification  unto  life,  is  by 
faith  in  Christ  alone,  and  that  the  Word  of  God  is  the  infallible 
and  sufficient,  the  certain  and  intelligible,  guide  in  the  way  of 
salvation.  And  though  they  believed  that  their  confession  was 
a  faithful  and  truthful  exposition  of  the  doctrines  concerning  the 
salvation  which  is  experienced  by  the  believer,  yet  they  did  not 
suspend  salvation  upon  subscription  to  this  interpretation  of  doc- 
trine. They  knew  that  salvation  is  a  personal  matter,  and  that 
the  Word  of  God  is  self-interpreting  for  each  individual  inquirer 
after  the  way  of  life.  They  appeal,  consequently,  to  the  indi- 
vidual conscience  in  the  hght  of  the  Word  of  God,  inviting 
every  man  to  subject  all  human  forms  and  expressions  of  doc- 
trine to  the  test  of  the  infallible  Word  of  God — to  the  sacred 
Scriptures. 

So  deeply  rooted  was  this  principle  in  the  Lutheran  church, 
that  fifty  years  after  the  giving  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  the 
authors  of  the  Formula  of  Concord  seem  to  have  been  as  sen- 
sible of  it  as  were  the  confessors  at  Augsburg.  They  declare, 
"That  the  only  rule  and  standard  to  which  both  doctrines  and 
teachers  are  to  be  directed,  and  by  which  they  are  to  be  judged, 
are  solely  the  prophetical  and  apostolical  scriptures  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments.  All  other  writings,  whether  of  ancient 
or  modern  name,  must  not  be  held  equal  to  the  Holy  Script- 
ures, but  must  all  be  subordinated  to  it,  and  received  in  no  other 
way,  nor  any  further  than  as  witnesses  in  what  form  and  at  what 
places  such  doctrines  of  the  prophets  and  apostles  were  pre- 
served. In  this  way  the  difference  between  the  writings  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  all  other  writings,  is  preserved, 
and  the  sacred  Scriptures  alone  remain,  the  sole  judge,  rule  and 
standard  according  to  which,  as  the  sole  criterion,  all  doctrines 
shall  and  must  be  acknowledged  and  judged,  as  to  whether  they 
be  good  or  bad,  right  or  wrong.  But  other  symbols  and  writ- 
ings adduced,  are  not  standards  like  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but 
only  witnesses  and  declarations  of  faith, — how  in  each  period, 
on  controverted  articles  in  the  church  of  God,  the  sacred  Script- 
ures were  understood  and  interpreted  by  those  then  living,  and 
how  the  doctrines  contrary  to  them  were  rejected  and  con- 
demned." 

The  confessions  are  human  forms  of  truth,  doctrines  professed 

by  the   Church,   and   consequently  need   to   be   discussed   and 


AUGSBURG    CONFESSION    ALONE    BINDING.  35 

established.  The  Scriptures  are  objective  truth,  infalHble,  and 
consequently  unchangeable ;  the  creed  is  the  subjective  appre- 
hension of  the  truth,  and  consequently,  fallible  and  changeable. 
If,  as  we  have  seen,  even  the  most  rigid  Lutheran  symbol  calls 
all  such  formulas,  and  itself  among  the  rest,  only  the  witness  of 
the  Church  to  the  Word  of  God  at  that  particular  time,  and 
declares  that  their  testimony  must  be  tried  by  the  sacred  Scrip- 
tures— then  it  follows  that  the  confession  as  that  which  is  to  be 
judged  must  be  subordinate  to  the  Scriptures  which  are  to  judge 
it ;  that  it  is  to  be  received,  understood  and  expounded  in  the 
light  of  the  Bible  at  all  times;  that  this  witnessing  by  confession 
is  continuous  ;  and  that,  consequently,  each  generation  in  the 
course  of  the  development  of  the  church,  should  bear  a  part  in 
the  witnessing  of  those  who  compose  confessions  at  particular 
times.  The  General  Synod  is  right,  therefore,  in  keeping  clear, 
distinct  and  definite  this  relation  of  the  confession  to  the  sacred 
Scriptures ;  and  in  thus  keeping  open  the  way  for  the  free  and 
full  confession  of  the  doctrines  of  the  divine  Word,  as  the  church 
is  enabled  now  to  hold  them. 

2.  She  is  right  in  receiving  only  the  Ai/gsburg  Confession  as  in 
any  zuny  binding  on  ns  as  Lutherans. 

No  creed  can  be  obligatory  which  has  not  been  acknowledged 
by  the  Church  as  a  Church.  But  none  of  the  symbols,  except 
the  Augsburg  Confession,  has  ever  received  such  recognition. 
Therefore  it  alone  is  in  any  way  binding  on  us.  In  fact  the 
Evangelical  Lutheran  churches  were  originally  designated  and 
legally  recognized  as  the  churches  of  the  Augsburg  Confession. 
The  claim,  therefore,  of  any  particular  congregation,  in  any  age 
or  in  any  country,  to  be  a  legitimate  branch  of  the  Evangelical 
Lutheran  Church,  depends,  so  far  as  symbolical  authority  and 
doctrinal  confession  are  concerned,  only  upon  its  reception  of 
the  Augsburg  Confession. 

3.  She  is  right  in  requiring  only  a  conditional  subscription  Q.\ex\ 
to  the  Augsburg  Confession. 

She  acts  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  early  Lutheran  Reformation, 
when  she  distinguishes  between  fundamental  and  non-funda- 
mental doctrines,  and  requires  only  the  declaration,  that  it  "  is 
a  correct  exhibition  of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  divine 
Word  and  of  the  faith  of  our  Church  founded  in  that  Word." 
She  thus  appropriates  what  was  first  made  practicable  by  the 


36  RELATIONS    TO    THE    SYMBOLS    OF    OUR    CHURCH. 

principle  of  the  Rcfarviation,  and  preserves  an  'essential  trait  of 
early  and  true  Lutheranisvi. 

This  distinction  results  necessarily  from  the  great  principle  of 
the  Reformers — justification  by  faith  in  Christ  alone.  Before  the 
Reformation,  and  soon  after  the  Apostolic  times,  men  lost  sight 
of  this  distinction,  and  overlooking  the  living  power  of  saving 
truth — in  its  essential  elements  and  its  inner  relations  to  the  sin- 
cere soul — they  began,  in  their  resistance  of  incoming  heresies, 
to  establish  dogmas,  simply  as  drawn  from  either  the  oral  tradi- 
tions of  the  Church  or  from  the  sacred  Scriptures,  irrespective  of 
their  vital  nature  and  the  degree  of  their  nearness  to,  or  their  re- 
moteness from,  the  great  centre  of  saving  truth.  They  thus 
failed  to  apprehend  the  self-authenticating  nature  of  the  plan  of 
salvation  to  the  inquiring  soul,  to  distinguish  the  great  char- 
acteristic of  the  gospel  as  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to 
every  one  that  believeth ;  and  resting  entirely  upon«  the  formal 
character  and  external  authority  of  revealed  truth,  they  were 
necessarily  led  to  consider  all  doctrines  fundamental,  all  dogmas 
binding.  If  men  asked  for  the  foundation  of  the  obligation  of 
these  dogmas,  they  were  pointed,  on  the  one  hand,  by  the  mere 
ecclesiasticism — represented  by  the  Romanists — to  the  Church  ; 
and  on  the  other,  by  the  mere  Biblicists — represented  by  the 
opponents  of  ecclesiastical  authority,  such  as  the  Waldenses 
and  the  Wicklifites — to  the  sacred  Scriptures  as  a  mere  external 
law  or  rule,  separate  from,  and  independent  of,  the  subjective 
experience  of  their  saving  contents  as  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation,  and  as  having  a  vital  and  inseparable  relation  to  the 
receptivity  and  wants  of  man.  Thus  was  the  truth  revealed  for 
human  salvation  not  only  distinguished  from,  but  separated 
from,  the  living  power  which  it  exerts  upon  the  soul,  from  the 
experience  of  the  subject  of  it.  And  as,  in  the  one  case,  all 
doctrines  were  supposed  to  be  decided,  settled  and  fixed  by  the 
Church  in  its  visible  organism,  its  hierarchical  form ;  so,  in  the 
other,  Lhey  were  regarded  as  determined  by  the  Scriptures  merely 
in  their  formal  character,  as  an  external  rule  and  authority,  inde- 
pendently of  all  reference  to  the  saving  efficacy  of  their  contents. 
In  the  estimation  of  both  parties,  therefore,  all  doctrines  had  to 
be  considered  as  alike  in  their  binding  character ;  and  all  devia- 
tion from  them,  irrespective  of  their  relative  importance,  was 
deemed  fundamental  error  ;  all  departure  from  the  least,  as  well 


DISTINCTION    OF    FUNDAMENTALS  FROM    NON-FUNDAMENTALS.     3/ 

as  from  the   most  important,  was   to    be    regarded    as    equally 
worthy  of  condemnation. 

But  the  principle  of  the  Reformation  exposed  the  defect  and 
error  of  these  methods  of  apprehending  the  doctrines  of  divine 
revelation,  and  made  the  distinction  between  fundamental  and 
non-fundamental  doctrines  of  God's  holy  word,  practicable  and 
necessary.  In  the  light  of  justification  by  faith  in  Christ  alone, 
and  of  the  intelligibility  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  in  all  things 
pertaining  to  salvation,  in  personal  assurance  of  salvation,  in 
sonship  with  God  verified  in  the  believer's  experience  and  con- 
firmed by  the  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  there  is  produced  a 
complete  change  in  the  manner  of  apprehending  this  subject.  In 
this  appropriation  of  the  great  characteristic  of  the  new  covenant, 
that  "  all  shall  be  taught  of  God,"  of  the  fulfillment  of  the 
prophecy :  "  I  will  put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts,  and  write  it 
in  their  haarts,"  Christ  is  regarded  as  the  substance  of  the 
Gospel.  Though  all  doctrines  are,  indeed,  still  to  be  tested  by 
the  Word  of  God,  yet  all  things  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  are  not 
to  be  deemed  of  equal  importance.  And  even  important  doc- 
trines, not  immediately  connected  with  the  exhibition  and  appro- 
priation of  the  great  scheme  of  redemption,  are  to  be  distin- 
guished from  those  immediately  involved  in  it.  To  justifying 
faith,  the  Scriptures  present  Christ  as  the  central  point  of  all 
revealed  truth,  and  represent  the  fundamental  or  non-funda- 
mental character  of  their  doctrines  according  to  their  mediate  or 
immediate  connection  with  this  central  point.  They  distinguish 
between  foundation  and  superstructure.  They  are  a  united  body, 
but  all  their  parts  are  not  equally  important.  Their  relative 
importance  is  determined  by  their  near  or  distant  relation  to  the 
great  central  life  of  which  they  are  the  history  and  the  exhibi- 
tion. And  they  make  the  new  man  in  Christ  Jesu.s — the  living 
faith  which  they  produce  by  the  instrumentality  of  their  saving 
contents,  the  "faith  which  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for, 
and  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen,"  the  faith  which  is  the  sub- 
stance of  their  truth  as  appropriated  by  the  soul — capable  of 
apprehending  the  relative  importance  of  the  doctrines  of  which 
they  are  composed.  According  to  the  principle  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, dogmatic  formulas  must  not  all  be  placed  on  the  same 
level ;  doctrinal  propositions  must  not  all  be  considered  equally 
fundamental,  equally  necessary  to  the  preservation  and  growth 


38  RELATIONS    TO    THE   SYMBOLS    OF    OUR    CHURCH. 

of  the  Church,  and,  consequently,  must  not  all  be  made  equally 
binding.  Thus,  Luther,  in  the  early  days  of  the  Reformation, 
did  not  deny  the  right  of  fraternal  recognition  to  a  congregation 
holding  fast  this  central  point,  though  it  lacked  the  observance 
of  .many  important  doctrines.  "A  Christian,  holy  people,"  he 
says,  "is  to  be  known  by  this,  that  it  has  the  Holy  Word  of 
God,  although  this  be  unequally  treated.  Some  have  it  entirely 
pure ;  some  not.  Wherever  God's  Word  has  free  course,  there, 
also,  there  will  always  be  believers.  Further,  if  I  see  that  they 
preach  and  acknowledge  Christ  as  sent  of  God  the  Father,  that 
He  might,  through  His  death,  obtain  for  us  reconciliation  and 
grace  with  Him,  then  we  are  one  in  substance,  and  I  regard  them 
as  dear  brethren  in  Christ,  and  as  members  of  the  Christian 
Church."  This  is  what  Luther  and  the  other  early  Reformers 
meant  by  "the  pure  gospel,"  "  the  pure  truth,"  "  the  immaculate 
Word  of  God,"  which,  and  which  only,  they  would  make  binding 
on  men.  And  if  they  did  not,  at  a  later  day,  act  in  this  way,  it 
was  the  effect,  so  far,  of  the  influence  of  pre- Reformation  views, 
and  not  of  the  principle  of  the  Reformation.  It  was  only  a 
deviation  from  this  principle,  or  a  failure  to  apprehend  it  in  all 
its  bearings,  and  to  apply  it  as  they  were  at  first  led  to  do  by  the 
spirit  of  the  Reformation ;  and  it  only  shows  that  a  principle  so 
deep  and  so  far-reaching  needs  space  and  time  for  its  practical  ap- 
plication, and  requires  constantly  the  effort  to  appropriate  it  anew. 
This  distinction,  although  almost  entirely  suppressed  some 
time  after  the  Reformation,  was  still  supported  from  time  to  time 
by  such  men  as  Spener  and  the  Pietists  generally.  But  it  was  re- 
vived, and  for  the  first  time  distinctly  and  fully  recognized,  clearly 
and  publicly  adopted,  generally  professed  and  practically  carried 
out,  in  this  country,  and  that  by  the  General  Synod.  This  she  did 
in  the  language  of  her  doctrinal  basis,  by  the  provisions  of  her 
constitution,  and  by  at  once  extending  the  hand  of  Christian  fel- 
lowship to  all  believers  in  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  God's 
Word.  And  from  her  has,  in  a  great  measure,  proceeded  that 
spirit  ot  Christian  union  which  is  becoming  so  prevalent  in  the 
best  and  most  promising  parts  of  Christendom.  Indeed,  to  her 
belongs  the  immortal  honor  of  having  given  the  first  great  and  de- 
cided impulse  toward  the  origination  and  formation  of  the  Chris- 
tian World's  Evangelical  Alliance.  She  has  restored  the  observ- 
ance of  the  distinction  between  the  binding  character  of  funda- 


THIS    POSITION    PRACTICABLE.  39 

mental  doctrines,  as  distinguished  from  even  important,  but  not 
essential,  articles.  "  Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay,  than  that 
which  is  laid,  namely,  Jesus  Christ,"  but  men  may  "  build  thereon, 
hay,  wood,  stubble,"  as  well  as  "  precious  stones,"  and  yet  be 
saved.  She  has  practically  applied  the  principle  of  entrusting  the 
determination  of  the  details  of  doctrine  to  the  intelligibility  of 
the  Scriptures,  and  the  power  of  the  fact  of  justification  by  faith 
in  Christ  alone.  She  has,  thus,  acted  in  the  very  spirit  of  the 
Confession,  which  itself  tells  us  that  it  is  to  be  interpreted  in  the 
light  of  the  fact  that  we  are  justified  by  faith  in  Christ  alone  ; 
and  that  all  its  parts  must  be  regarded  as  designed  to  be  in 
accordance  with  it,  as  the  article  by  which  the  Church  must 
stand  or  fall.  She  realizes  that  the  time  has  come  when  the 
force  of  the  great  life-centres  of  the  system,  has  made  so  clear 
the  necessity  of  the  union  of  faith  and  the  Word,  of  the  inner 
experience  of  salvation  and  the  external  revelation,  of  the  saving 
influences  of  the  Spirit  and  the  means  of  divine  grace  ;  and  has 
made  so  prominent  the  doctrines  of  human  sinfulness  and  help- 
lessness, and  the  freeness  and  fullness  of  divine  grace  for  justifica- 
tion arid  regeneration, — that,  beyond  this  preserving  influence, 
we  need  no  guarantees  of  the  creed  as  binding  on  the  con- 
sciences of  ministers  and  people  in  the  Church.  Not  for  the 
restriction  of  the  system,  but  for  the  increase  of  its  power,  does 
she  preserve  the  freedom  of  her  people.  All  who  hold  the  vital 
organs,  the  head  and  heart,  the  great  centre  of  divine  truth, 
though  they  may  have  defective  or  even  erroneous  views  of 
some  of  the  limbs  or  members  of  the  doctrinal  body,  are  to  be 
received  as  members  of  Christ's  Church.  Men  may  be  alive 
without  hands  or  feet,  if  they  only  have  heads  and  hearts  ;  and 
we  cannot  place  the  head  and  heart  upon  a  level  with  the  hands 
and  feet,  that  is,  we  must  not  make  all  parts  of  the  Confession 
equally  binding  as  terms  of  communion. 

The  entire  history  of  the  General  Synod  shows  that  this  is 
practicable ;  that  it  can  be  done  consistently  with  the  most 
"  warm  and  glowing  piety,"  and  in  direct  opposition  to  all  "  cold 
and  lifeless  religionism;"  that  it  can  be  done  in  the  very 
"  depths  of  a  believing  spirit."  For  in  no  part  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  has  there  been  less  of  a  rationalistic  tendency,  or  more 
of  a  deep  evangelical  spirit.  No  body  of  ministers  has  been 
more  characteristic  for  the  earnest  preaching  of  "  Christ  and  Him 


40  RELATIONS    TO    THE   SYMBOLS    OF    OUR    CHURCH. 

crucified,"  for  insisting  upon  the  necessity  of  the  atonement, 
upon  the  guilt  of  sin,  gratuitous  justification  and  spiritual  regen- 
eration in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  symbols.  And  nowhere  have 
the  people  had  a  more  simple  and  child-like  belief  in  "  Him 
whom  God  has  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  for  sin,  through 
faith  in  His  blood."  Indeed,  if  there  was  any  one  thing,  which, 
at  the  time  of  its  origination,  characterized  more  than  another 
the  friends  and  enemies  of  the  General  Synod,  it  was  the  fact 
that,  as  a  rule,  the  former  were  the  more  evangelical,  the  latter 
the  more  rationalistic,  in  their  spirit  and  tendencies. 

§  5.  Difficulties  in  the  Way  of  Unconditional  Subscription. 

The  Confession  was  intended  to  be  not  only  a  creed,  but  a 
defence — was,  indeed,  called,  at  first,  an  apology — and,  con- 
sequently, it  contains  many  arguments  and  illustrations,  citations 
from  patristic  writings,  and  even  from  decisions  of  popes,  to  show 
that  the  Evangelical  Church  teaches  nothing  inconsistent  "  with 
either  the  Catholic  or  the  Roman  Church  " — all  of  which  was 
proper  enough  in  the  case  of  the  confessors,  and  for  apologetic 
and  polemical  purposes,  at  that  time.  But  certainly  the  Evan- 
gelical Lutheran  Church  has  long  ago  ceased  to  have  any  such 
respect  for  the  fathers,  or  any  such  deference  to  the  popes,  and 
cannot,  consequently,  with  any  propriety,  make  these  parts  of 
the  Confession  binding  on  her  people. 

The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  many  forms  of  expression. 
There  is,  for  example,  the  inconsistency  in  its  declaring  in  one 
part  that  "Private  Confession" — a  confessedly  human  institution 
— "  ought  to  be  retained  in  the  churches  ;"  and,  in  another  place, 
that  "  It  is  not  necessary  that  the  same  traditions,  that  is,  rites 
and  ceremonies  instituted  by  men,  should  be  everywhere  ob- 
served." So  the  language  used  in  regard  to  the  minister's 
annunciation  of  the  absolution,  namely,  "That  the  absolution  is 
to  be  valued,  as  being,  not  the  voice  or  the  word  of  the  present 
(officiating)  human  being,  but  the  word  of  God,  who  pardons 

sin" "That  God  requires  us  to    believe    this  absolution, 

just  as  though  His  voice  resounded  from  heaven," — makes  an 
unconditional  subscription  in  the  highest  degree  improper.  The 
same  thing  is  true  of  its  declaration  concerning  the  Sabbath, 
"  That  the  Holy  Scripture  has  abolished  the  Sabbath."  These 
expressions  maybe  susceptible  of  an  evangelical  explanation,  but 


FORMS  CAPABLE  OF  IMPROVEMENT.  4I 

this  only  proves  that,  in  part  at  least,  the  Confession  must  be  in- 
terpreted by  the  Bible,  by  that  "  pure  gospel,"  to  which  alone  the 
confessors  meant  that  men  should  be  unconditionally  bound. 

If  the  Confession  were  considered  binding  in  all  respects,  in  its 
theological  forms  as  well  as  in  its  doctrinal  contents,  then,  as  it 
acknowledges  and  adopts  the  creeds  of  the  old  Catholic  Church, 
it  would  bind  us  to  the  letter,  as  well  as  the  subject-matter,  of 
these  symbols.  But  this  would  be  inconsistent  with  the  true 
Protestant  spirit.  For  we  would  then  have  to  receive,  for  in- 
stance, the  expression  in  the  Apostles'  Creed,  "  I  believe  in  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church,"  in  the  sense  of  the  old  Catholic  Church, 
namely,  in  the  sense  of  belief  in  the  visible  Church,  and  of  faith 
in  that  Church  as  the  Church  beyond  whose  pale  there  is  no 
salvation.  But  this  is  a  doctrine  which  Lutheran  Protestantism 
has,  from  the  beginning,  most  decidedly  repudiated.  The  idea 
that  salvation  is  suspended  upon  faith  in  doctrinal  formulas,  as  it 
is  expressed  in  those  ancient  creeds,  is,  as  we  have  seen,  utterly 
unevangelical.  So  the  opus  operatiim  of  the  sacraments,  having 
been  rejected  by  the  Reformation,  the  Confession  of  that  Refor- 
mation could  not  have  intended  to  revive  it  and  make  it  binding 
on  our  faith,  and,  consequently,  the  authors  of  it  could  not  have 
desired  or  expected  an  unconditional  subscription  to  e,very  form 
of  expression. 

§6.     TJie   Forms  of  the    Confession    must   be   Regarded  as 
Capable  of  Improvement. 

The  fact  that  the  writer  of  the  Confession  made  changes  from 
time  to  time  in  its  forms  of  expression,  shows  how  susceptible 
they  are  of  improvement.  If  he  felt  the  desirableness  of  such 
modification  of  forms  during  the  brief  period  of  development  of 
his  time,  how  much  more  ought  we  to  feel  it  after  centuries  of 
experience.  True  Lutheran  Protestantism  cannot  design  nor 
allow  its  creed  to  be  a  hindrance  to  all  theological  improve- 
ment. It  can  no  more  subsist  than  it  could  originally  have  been 
brought  into  existence  without  the  principle  of  proving  all 
things.  It  cannot  be  satisfied  with  that  which  is,  without  labor- 
ing in  the  ligjit  of  divine  revelation  to  attain  that  which  has  not 
yet  been,  but  which  ought  to  be,  and  which  it  is  possible  to  real- 
ize from  a  constant  study  of  the  Bible.  "  The  body  of  dogmas," 
says  Dr.  Shedd,  "  was  by  no  means  fully  apprehended  by  the 


42  RELATIONS    TO    THE   SYMBOLS    OF    OUR    CHURCH. 

ecclesiastical  mind  in  the  outset.  Its  scientific  and  systematic 
comprehension  is  a  gradual  process ;  the  fijller  creed  bursts  out 
of  the  narrower ;  the  expanded  treatise  swells  forth  growth-like 
from  the  more  slender;  the  work  of  each  generation  of  the 
Church  joins  on  upon  that  of  the  preceding."  There  are,  indeed, 
certain  great  epochs  of  such  speculative  apprehension;  thus  we 
have,  first,  that  of  Theology  proper :  of  God  and  the  Trinity ; 
then,  that  of  Anthropology  :  of  the  nature  of  man  and  of  sin  and 
grace;  then  Soteriology :  of  justification  by  faith.  But  as  in 
each  of  the  intervals  between  these  great  epochs,  there  was  a 
constantly  increasing  practicability  of  appropriating  the  great 
dogmas  which  had  been  produced ;  so  now,  and  especially  in 
this  age  of  the  dissolution  of  doctrines,  should  there  be  an  effort 
to  apprehend  anew,  and  to  appropriate  more  fully  than  they 
could  ever  before  be  conceived  and  expressed,  the  results  of  the 
operation  of  the  evangelical  spirit  in  the  past.  This  can  and 
should  be  done,  not  in  a  spirit  inimical  to  the  symbols  of  our 
Church,  but  with  such  love  of  the  great  system  of  evangelical  truth 
zvhich  they  contain,  that  we  cannot  rest  until  everything  in  the 
form  which  obstructs  the  manifestation,  or  hinders  the  reception 
of  it,  be  removed.  We  should  cherish  freedom,  for  the  purpose 
of  bringing  to  clearer  view  the  trnc  Lutheran  view  of  the  word 
and  sacraments,  and  especially  for  the  promotion  of  the  great 
doctrines  of  grace  and  redemption  which  constitute  the  great 
substance  of  the  Augsburg  Confession.  In  this  spirit  the  Reform- 
ers themselves  labored.  The  authors  of  the  Confession  were 
themselves  the  subjects  of  dev^elopment  and  change,  theologically 
and  doctrinally.  Not  to  speak  of  Melanchthon's  changes,  Luther, 
if  even  he  did  not  depart  from  his  original  stern  Augustinian- 
ism,  in  which  he  taught  the  doctrine  of  absolute  predestination, 
at  least  changed  its  position  from  a  prominent  to  a  subordinate 
place  in  his  theological  system.  And,  indeed,  the  entire  Luth- 
eran Church  did,  at  an  early  day  after  the  Confession  was  deliv- 
ered, declare  itself  against  a  doctrine — that  of  unconditional 
election — which  was,  at  one  time,  undoubtedly  held  by  all  the 
principal  Reformers — although  so  modified  that  it  did  not  gain  a 
place  in  the  Confession,  yet  held  even  at  the  time  the  Confes- 
sion was  given. 

We  must  recognize  a  relative  difference  between  dogmatic  for- 
mulas and  Scripture  doctrines;  must  acknowledge  that  our  eccle- 


NECESSARY    TO    THE    EFFICIENCY    OF    THE    MINISTRY.  43 

siastical  system  of  doctrines,  with  all  its  fundamental  correctness, 
has  in  it  a  human  element,  not  guided  by  inspiration,  and,  conse- 
quently, a  fallible  element.  If  we  regarded  every  part  of  our 
Confession,  in  content  and  form,  as  fixed  and  fundamental,  as  un- 
conditionally binding,  and  incapable  of  all  possible  change,  we 
should  not  have  the  true  type  of  Lutheranism ;  would  not  have 
the  spirit  of  the  great  hero  of  the  Reformation,  who  made  the 
Scriptures  his  only  guide,  and  who  in  all  his  writings,  from  the 
earliest  to  the  latest,  calls  upon  all  Christians  to  try  their  faith, 
their  confession  as  well  as  their  life,  by  the  Scriptures,  as  the 
only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 

§  7.   TJiis  EvaJigelical  Freedom  is  Necessary  to  Efficiency  in  tJie 
Ministers  of  the  Word. 

While  the  Church  should  require  her  ministers  to  be  faithful 
to  the  great  system  of  doctrine,  and  to  exhibit  the  fundamental 
ideas  of  her  symbols ;  while  she  should  bind  them  to  preach 
purely,  distinctly,  and  fully  the  great  saving  truths  of  the  gospel ; 
she  should  not  suppose  that  this  great  purpose  can  be  best  accom- 
plished by  their  confining  their  thoughts  and  their  preaching  en- 
tirely to  the  old  forms  of  the  creeds,  but  she  should  allow  them 
to  communicate  these  truths  in  new  forms,  in  forms  suitable  to 
the  modes  of  modern  thought,  and  corresponding  to  the  present 
stage  of  religious  and  theological  development.  "  If,"  says 
Luther,  "  it  is  enough  that  they  (the  fathers)  have  taught,  where- 
fore is  it  not  also  enough  that  they  have  led  a  holy  life  ?  If  one 
kind  of  words  is  sufficient,  why  is  not  one  kind  of  works  ?  Ac- 
cording to  this  idea  (that  all  doctrinal  forms  must  be  considered 
unchangeable),  we  must  satisfy  ourselves,  as  with  their  words,  so 
with  their  works."  If  the  Church  expects  to  have  theological 
science  which  shall  be  progressive  and  suitable  to  the  demands 
of  the  age,  if  she  desires  her  ministers  to  defend  the  Scriptures 
and  to  maintain  the  creed  against  the  attacks  of  enemies,  she 
must  allow  them  full  scope  for  the  free  examination  of  the  sources 
of  these  objections,  and  the  impartial  investigation  of  the  grounds 
of  these  doctrines.  Ijut  this,  with  sincere  and  honest  men,  who 
must  speak  as  they  believe,  would  be  inconsistent  with  uncondi- 
tional subscription  to  all  the  details  of  the  creed.  "  How,"  says 
Dr.  S.  S.  Schmucker,  "  can  that  man  be  an  impartial  inquirer 
after  truth,  how  can  he  throw  open  his  soul  to  the  full  influence 


44  RELATIONS    TO    THE    SYMBOLS    OF    OUR    CHURCH. 

of  evidence,  who  knows  that  exclusion  from  his  ecclesiastical 
connections,  ejection  from  his  pastoral  charge,  and  exposure  of 
his  dependent  family  to  poverty  and  want,  would  be  the  conse- 
quence if  his  investigations  should  result  in  the  rejection  of  a 
single  article  in  his  confession  of  faith  ?"  The  Church  should  in- 
deed expect  her  ministers  to  have  an  honest  preference  for  her 
creed,  to  manifest  sincere  attachment  to  its  characteristic  excel- 
lencies, and  to  receive  it  consistently  and  earnestly  as  the  truest 
summary  of  the  faith  of  the  gospel  among  all  the  creeds  of 
Christendom.  But  she  should  at  the  same  time  so  distinguish 
between  the  fundamental  aspects  of  this  faith  and  those  which 
are  not  essential,  that  she  will  expect  of  her  ministers  the  accept- 
ance of  no  unconditional  human  authority.  To  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  there  must  be  required  an  unconditional  subscription. 
But  she  should  not  require  an  absolute  pledge  to  every  part  of  her 
system,  nor  an  unconditional  reception  oi  t\\Q  forjus  as  ivell  as  the 
substance  of  her  doctrines.  This  distinction  between  the  letter 
and  the  spirit  is,  indeed,  liable  to  abuse,  but  this  must  not  prevent 
its  proper  use.  If  she  expects  her  scribes  to  aim  at  being  well 
instructed  and  at  becoming  qualified  to  bring  forth  out  of  the 
treasury  of  the  Lord  of  all,  things  new  as  well  as  old,  she  must 
allow  them  freely  to  appropriate  the  results  of  the  centuries  of 
research  and  experience  which  have  passed  since  the  Confession 
was  first  framed  and  published.  She  should  have  sufficient  con- 
fidence in  the  power  of  divine  truth,  not  to  be  unduly  concerned 
about  any  hujnan  guarantees  of  its  purity  and  preservation.  She 
should  be  so  confident  of  its  divine  security  and  final  triumph  as 
to  be  content  with  a  conditional  subscription  to  her  creed,  and  to 
feel  that  her  life  and  growth  are  not  only  consistent  zuith  but  in- 
separable from  the  clear  consciousness  and  free  acknowledgment 
of  the  right  of  progressive  doctrinal  development. 

§  8.   The  Contrary  Method  is  a  Hindrance  to  the  Safe/j'  and 
Prog-ress  of  the  Church. 

If  the  Church  hold  all  the  forms  of  her  Confession  to  be  un- 
conditionally and  unchangeably  binding,  she  will  be  hampered 
in  her  members,  clogged  in  her  movements,  and  stunted  in  her 
growth.  The  constant  and  progressive  march  to  victory  over 
her  enemies,  requires  this  freedom  in  her  friends.  It  is  not  for 
the  purpose  of  rejecting,  but  for  that  of  more  completely  appre- 


THE    IMMUTABLE    GROUNDWORK.  45 

bending  and  more  fully  appropriating  the  doctrines  of  our 
Church,  of  bringing  more  clearly  to  light  and  of  more  firmly 
establishing  them  in  their  fundamental  importance,  that  this 
position  should  be  maintained.  In  this  freedom  is  the  point  of 
union  between  the  preservation  a]id  growth  of  the  Church.  And 
it  is  the  very  spirit  of  Lutheran  Protestantism  and  piety,  to 
recognize  this  union  of  true  conservatism  and  genuine  progress. 
Great  as  may  be  the  noise  and  tumult  raised  from  time  to  time, 
by  the  convulsive  agitations  and  reactionary  movements  of  a 
false  and  fanatical  conservatism,  they  are  only  the  eddies  along 
the  shore,  while  the  great  stream  of  truth  and  life  is  moving 
quietly  and  steadily  onward,  with  irrepressible  freedom  and  irre- 
sistible power. 

It  is  only  by  clearly  recognizing  her  immutable  groundwork, 
and  continuing  to  build  upon  it — by  aiming  at  developing  her 
peculiar  type  of  doctrine  and  life  into  the  most  perfect  evangeli- 
cal forms,  at  enlarging  and  elevating  her  spirit  to  the  dimensions 
and  position  of  the  most  true  and  complete  catholicity — that 
she  will  have  a  healthful  life  in  the  present,  and  a  well-grounded 
hope  for  the  future.  If  she  refuse  to  tolerate  and  foster  this 
spirit,  she  will  put  the  labors  of  criticism  into  the  hands  of 
unbelief  Hindering  the  spirit  of  a  believing  criticism  among 
her  loving  children,  and  yet  unable  to  restrain  the  spirit  of  in- 
quiry which  is  now  abroad  in  the  human  mind,  she  will  soon 
suffer  the  sad  effects  of  a  criticism  wielded  by  an  infidel  and 
hating  world — of  a  criticism  which  is  ready  to  conclude  that  a 
doctrine  is  false,  just  because  it  is  a  dogma  of  the  Church.  The 
powers  of  criticism  exercised  by  the  purely  secular  world,  will 
endeavor  to  explain  away  or  make  incredible  whatever  is  not 
agreeable  to  the  unregenerate  mind,  not  consonant  with  the  taste 
of  a  mere  worldly  culture,  or  not  congenial  to  the  habits  of  the 
times  ;  and  the  storm  of  opposition  coming  unexpectedly  upon 
the  Church  in  her  blind  security,  many  of  her  children  being 
utterly  unprepared  to  meet  it  will  be  panic-stricken,  and  thus 
be  frightened  into  making  undue  concessions  to  radical  unbelief, 
into  yielding  unnecessarily  many  important  posts  to  the  enemy ; 
while  others,  not  duly  recognizing  the  distinction  between 
fundamentals  and  non-fundamentals,  and  not  clearly  perceiving 
the  importance  of  maintaining  the  great  citadel  of  truth  rather 
than  the  mere  outworks,  will  be  unskillful  soldiers  of  the  cross ; 


4-6  RELATIONS    TO    THE   SYMBOLS    OF    OUR    CHURCH. 

while  others  still,  failing  to  make  a  new  and  living  appropriation  of 
the  saving  substance  of  truth — not  appreciating  the  necessity  and 
force  of  a  clear  and  decisive  confession  of  fundamentals,  of  ex- 
plicit and  faithful  statement  and  maintenance  of  the  great  distin- 
guishing doctrines  of  the  gospel — will  be  content  with  the  effort 
to  preserve  and  establish  the  old  forms  of  doctrine,  by  an  appeal 
to  ignorance,  superstition,  or  fear,  only  to  be  the  more  shame- 
fully exposed  and  defeated  in  the  close  conflicts  of  the  battle. 
Thus  by  neglecting  an  inward  and  free,  a  personal  and  vital 
reception  of  divine  truth,  by  relying  upon  the  Jiuman  guarantees 
and  distrusting  the  self-evidencing  pozver  of  it,  many  of  her  chil- 
dren will  be  led  to  abandon  the  ark  of  God  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy,  when  they  might  have  seen  that  they  were  almost  in 
sight  of  the  victory — to  betray  the  sacred  treasures  of  the  faith, 
when  they  could  have  been  most  easily  and  speedily  secured. 

§  9.    TJie  Strength  of  the  Church  imist  be  SongJit  in  the  Union 
of  Faith  and  Freedom. 

Firm  faith  and  free  criticism  are  not  necessarily  in  antagonism. 
True  belief  and  sincere  inquiry  are  natural  allies,  and  their  union 
will  be  found  in  the  acceptance  of  the  gospel,  not  as  a  yoke  of 
bondage  imposed  by  a  rigid  enforcement  of  the  creed,  but  as  the 
law  of  liberty  revealed  by  Him  who  fully  understands  the  nature 
and  wants  of  man,  and  who  alone  makes  free  indeed.  The 
strength  of  the  truth  lies  in  its  being  chosen  with  that  free  and 
joyful  conviction  and  confidence  involved  in  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation  in  both  its  material  and  its  formal  phases,  in  the 
personal  assurance  of  salvation,  the  fact  of  justification  by  faith 
in  Christ  alone  as  a  matter  of  inner  experience,  in  immediate 
communion  with  God  in  Christ  through  the  Holy  Ghost.  Let 
the  spirit  of  a  believing  criticism  as  the  result  of  freedom  within 
the  fold  of  the  faithful  be  encouraged,  and  the  power  of  infidel 
criticism  will  be  destroyed ;  and  the  Lutheran  system  of  doctrine, 
having  been  the  fruit  of  a  great  development  in  the  past  history 
of  the  Church,  will  be  found  adequate  to  the  demands  of  coming 
days.  It  will  be  found  capable  of  progressive  enlargement  with 
perfect  safety  to  its  fundamental  features.  Under  the  constantly 
increasing  light  which  is  breaking  forth  from  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures amid  the  labors  of  believing  research  and  interpretation  ; 
under  the  ever  clearer  apprehension  of  the  true  idea  of  God  and 


UNION  OF  FAITH  AND  FREEDOM.  4/ 

the  world  revealed  in  the  Bible,  and  of  the  true  idea  of  man  as 
manifested  in  the  course  of  psychological  development;  in  short, 
under  the  light  which  shines  in  the  wake  of  centuries  of  experi- 
ence and  observation,  the  fundamental  conception,  the  essential 
groundwork  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  will  be  seen 
in  clearer  form  and  brighter  glory.  In  proportion  as  men  be- 
come aware  of  their  nature  and  wants  individually  and  socially, 
will  they  see  that  it  is  in  this  union  of  abiding  faith  and  mental 
progress,  of  fixedness  of  heart  and  movement  of  intellect,  of 
stability  and  development,  that  the  living  power  of  truth,  as  well 
as  the  security,  prosperity  and  triumph  of  the  Church  are  found. 
The  conservatism  which  would  keep  everything  just  as  it  is, 
however  unsuitable  to  the  wants  of  the  age  and  country,  is  folly ; 
and  the  radicalism  which  would  dissolve  everything,  which  has 
no  respect  for  the  historical  and  positive  element  in  Christianity, 
is  the  madness  of  destruction.  True  Protestantism  is  confes- 
sional, yet  liberal ;  believing,  yet  free  ;  conservative,  yet  progress- 
ive ;  fixed  and  sure  of  the  great  savin'g  truths  of  the  gospel,  yet 
ever  actively  moving  onward  in  the  effort  to  gain  a  clearer  view 
and  to  make  a  more  complete  appropriation  of  the  truth  as  it  is 
in  Jesus,  in  all  its  relations  to  the  kingdom  of  nature  and  the 
kingdom  of  spirits.  From  all  this  we  see  the  importance  of  appre- 
hending anew,  in  all  its  bearings,  the  great  principle  of  the  Luth- 
eran Reformation,  as  the  groundwork  of  our  theology;  and  for 
the  investigation  of  this  important  subject  we  are  now  prepared. 


THE  GROUNDWORK 


OF   A   SYSTEM    OF 


EVANGELICAL  LUTHERAN  THEOLOGY. 


Without  the  principle  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation  there  is 
no  starting  point  for  science  in  Christianity  ;  but  in  it  we  liave  a 
soHd  basis  of  systematic  theology.  All  science  must  begin  from 
some  experience  in  consciousness.  The  assurance  of  the  faith 
which  rests  merely  on  testimony,  without  any  real  or  possible  ex- 
perience in  consciousness,  is,  indeed,  well  founded,  if  the  testimony 
is  infallible  ;  and  it  has  in  it  an  element  of  knowledge,  but  not  of 
knowledge  which  can  be  the  starting  point  or  the  germ  of  science. 
But  the  assurance  of  salvation  involved  in  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation,  results  from  a  faith  which  is  inseparably  connected 
with  experience  in  consciousness.  In  it,  consequently,  is  an  ele- 
ment of  knowledge  which  is  a  proper  starting  point  for  science  in 
theology.  In  this  case  there  is  as  real  experience  in  consciousness 
as  there  is  in  natural  science.  As  compared  with  natural  science, 
Christian  science  has  not,  indeed,  as  wide  a  range  of  experience  in 
consciousness.  All  the  objects  of  the  common  consciousness  are 
the  subjects  of  a  real  or  a  possible  experience,  while  the  objects  of 
the  Christian  consciousness  which  can  be  the  subjects  of  real  or 
possible  experience  are  limited  to  the  realities  experienced  in  jus- 
tification by  faith — personal  assurance  of  salvation,  the  experience 
of  peace  with  God  and  of  the  hope  of  His  glory,  of  sonship  with 
God,  and  of  the  filial  spirit,  crying  Abba,  Father.  But  the  expe- 
rience in  consciousness  in  the  latter  case  is  just  as  real  an  expe- 
rience of  the  reality  of  its  objects  as  in  the  former.  As  com- 
pared with  natural  philosophy,  theology  has  more  certainty  of 
the  valid  being  of  the  realities  of  the  Christian  consciousness 
than  philosophy  has  for  the  external  existence  of  the  objects  of 
the  common  consciousness. 

Theology  being,  the  science  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  resting 
upon  divine  revelation,  has  within  the  pale  of  its  operations  a  much 
clearer  and  surer  ground  of  certainty  of  truth  than  is  to  be  found 
even  in  the  province  of  natural  science.    They  both  have  facts  o^ 

(48) 


SUPERIOR    GROUNDS    OF   CERTAINTY    OF    TRUTH.  49 

experience,  and  both  begin  with  objects  of  consciousness.  But 
while  the  former  has  the  certainty  of  the  vaHd  being  of  its  objects, 
assured  by  the  certainty  and  intelligibility  of  divine  revelation,  the 
latter  must  submit  the  question  of  the  reality  of  the  qualities 
and  events  and  of  the  substances  and  causes  with  which  it  deals, 
so  far  as  their  existence  distinct  from  the  consciousness  of  them 
is  concerned,  to  the  doubtful  specidations  of  the  Jiiunan  intellect. 
In  the  latter  case  some,  for  the  certainty  of  the  external  reality, 
throw  themselves  back  upon  the  dictates  of  common  sense,  and 
regard  the  belief  in  consciousness  of  the  real  existence  of  its  ob- 
jects as  ultimate ;  others  upon  blind,  mystical  feeling,  upon  an 
inner  light,  which  in  its  indefiniteness  is  identical  with  darkness. 
The  idealist  denies  the  reality  of  the  material ;  the  materialist 
that  of  the  ideal.  Absolute  idealism  makes  the  idea  the  only 
reality;  it  has  no  real  objects  and  no  real  spectator  or  observer 
of  objects,  but  only  the  idea  as  reality.  Absolute  nescience 
denies  the  reality  of  the  spectator,  of  the  object,  and  of  the  idea; 
it  declares  that  we  know  neither  subject  nor  object,  nor  idea  of 
knowledge;  that  we  have  neither  a  knower  nor  a  known,  but 
only  the  theory  of  knowledge. 

For  the  better  understanding  of  this  whole  question  concern- 
ing the  rational  ground  of  the  certainty  of  the  knowledge  in 
common  consciousness,  and  to  enable  us  more  fully  to  appre- 
ciate the  certainty  of  the  objects  of  the  Christian  consciousness, 
and  especially  of  the  objects  involved  in  the  experience  of  the 
saving  power  of  Christianity,  it  will  be  interesting  and  profit- 
able to  look  at  some  of  the  best  attempts  of  philosophy  on  this 
subject.  "  How,"  says  Dr.  Hickok,  "  shall  these  notions  of 
substance  and  cause  be  verified  ?  It  is  not  sufficient  that  the 
perception  has  been  plain,  nor  that  we  have  been  careful  to 
secure  a  broad  induction  of  facts  before  we  have  defined  the 
particular  things  or  deduced  the  general  law.  Such  considera- 
tions are  important  merely  in  reference  to  the  modus  operandi, 
and  the  determination  of  the  correctness  of  the  process.  We 
need  to  go  back  of  the  process,  and  examine  the  conditioning 
principle.  How  do  we  attain  the  validity  of  substance  and 
cause  ?  How  do  we  determine  their  uniformity  ?  By  what 
right  do  we  assume  that  nature  has  universal  laws  ?  That  in  a 
large  induction  of  facts  such  an  order  has  been  found,  will  not 
be  sufficient  ground  to  conclude,  therefore,  this  order  is  neces- 
4 


50    GROUNDWORK  OF  EVANGELICAL  LUTHERAN  THEOLOGY. 

sary  and  and  universal — experience  has  been  thus  hitherto, 
therefore  it  must  be  such  evermore.  Experience  itself  is  based 
upon  the  connections  of  substances  and  causes,  inasmuch  as 
without  them  all  perception  is  only  of  the  isolated  and  i^eeting 
qualities  and  events,  with  nothing  to  connect  such  in  a  unity  of 
nature  ;  and  here  we  have  not  only  assumed  them  for  connect- 
ing qualities  into  things,  but  also  have  assumed  their  uniformity 
for  connecting  things  in  a  general  law  of  nature.  Have  we  then 
a  firm  ground  on  which  to  stand,  when  we  attempt  to  go 
beyond  the  province  of  sense?  The  grand  question  is,  How 
come  we  by  the  notions  of  substances  and  causes  ?  and,  espe- 
cially, how  come  we  by  their  perpetual  order  of  connection  ? 
The  results  of  reflection ;  the  truth  of  experience  ;  the  validity 
of  all  thinking  in  judgments,  and  the  entire  superstructure  of 
inductive  science,  all  rest  entirely  upon  the  answer  which  may 
be  given  to  such  a  comprehensive  inquiry.  If  we  can  find  a  firm 
foundation  on  which  to  rest  an  affirmation  in  this  matter,  then 
is  a  science  of  experience  and  nature  possible  ;  if  not,  the  most 
that  is  within  our  reach  is  probability  and  belief,  and  the  whole 
region  of  natural  philosophy  is  open  to  the  skeptic." 

The  attempt  may  then  be  made,  as  does  this  author,  to  give  an 
a  priori  rational  science  of  our  cognitions  in  the  sense  and  in  the 
understanding,  in  such  a  way  that  it  shall  in  each  case  become 
the  basis  for  a  demonstration  of  the  valid  being  of  the  objects  of 
our  knowledge.  This  is  done  by  him  in  a  masterly  manner. 
But  still,  after  all  such  efforts,  many  will  doubt  whether  we  can 
pass  from  the  thought  to  the  object,  from  the  idea  to  the  reality. 
Another  great  philosopher,  Ulrici,  after  having  shown  the  logical 
necessity  that  there  is  in  thought,  declares,  in  addition  to  this,  that 
there  is  "  a  necessity  which  rests  upon  factors  which  exist  outside 
of  the  sphere  of  thought.  Not  only  is  it  impossible  for  me  to 
deny  that  A  =  A  ;  I  cannot  deny,  and  I  must  assume,  that  what 
is  perceived  exists.  The  theory  of  idealism  in  its  most  extreme 
form,  or  the  theory  that  out  of  thought  nothing  whatever  exists, 
can  easily  be  refuted  if  we  hold  fast  to  the  theorem  that  thought 
is  a  distinguishing  activity ;  as  a  thinking  being  I  can  think  of 
myself  only  when  I  think  of  something  which  has  not  the  faculty 
of  thought  and  from  which  I  thus  distinguish  myself;  the  hy- 
pothesis of  material  existence  is  necessary  in  thought.  In  like 
manner  I  can  think  of  myself  as  limited,  only  when  I  distin- 


THE    BIBLICAL    REALISM    REVIVED    BY    LUTHER.  5  I 

guish  myself  from  something"  which  Hmits  me.  I  am,  therefore, 
compelled  to  assume  that  other  spirits  beside  myself  exist. 
Finally,  the  idea  of  my  own  dependence  implies  the  idea  of  an 
independent  (unconditioned)  being,  on  whom  all  other  things  de- 
pend ;  thus  the  ideas  expressed  by  the  words  world,  spirit,  and 
God,  are  necessary  in  me  as  a  thinking  being.  True,  the  sub- 
stance of  these  three  ideas  is  thus  far  only  negative — not-thinking, 
not-me,  not-dependent.  But  the  positive  complement  is  obtained 
by  us  through  the  positive  operation,  upon  our  organs  of  con- 
sciousness, of  the  objects  of  these  ideas,  which  objects  we  are 
forced  to  assume  as  existing  by  the  law  of  causality  ;  at  the  same 
time  that  it  is  possible  that  our  ideas  only  correspond  with  and 
are  not  an  absolutely  equivalent  image  of  their  objects.  As  the 
realistic  doctrine  that  our  knowledge  depends  upon  the  operation 
of  real  objects  upon  us,  is  necessary  to  thought,  so  also  is  the 
idealistic  doctrine,  that  our  knowing  depends  upon  an  activity  of 
our  own.  If  thus  realism  and  ideaJism  equally  rest  on -necessi- 
ties of  thought,  and  are,  therefore,  alike  philosophically  tenable 
standpoints,  this  does  not  mean  that  philosophy  must  occupy  a 
standpoint  superior  to  and  different  from  either,  but,  rather,  that 
the  doctrine  of  the  world,  the  mind,  and  God,  must  be  developed, 
on  the  one  hand,  altogether  realistically  up  to  the  point  where 
realism  sees  herself  forced  to  proceed  idealistically  (to  assume 
laws  hypothetically,  and  so  on),  and  at  the  same  time  and  m  like 
manner,  on  the  other  hand,  altogether  idealistically,  until  a  point 
is  reached  where  it  becomes  necessary  to  take  refuge  in  the 
experimental  (the  definitely  qualitative,  etc.)." 

Now  the  realism  which  the  philosopher  labors  so  hard  to  find 
in  his  province,  the  theologian  has  secured  to  him  in  his  sphere, 
by  the  divine  revelation  in  the  Bible.  He  has,  equally  with  the 
philosopher,  real  personal  experience  in  consciousness ;  and  as 
long  as  the  facts  of  the  existence  of  the  Church  and  of  the  new 
life  in  the  hearts  of  believers  have  not  been  successfully  explained 
as  mere  facts  of  nature,  he  has  equally  with  the  scientist  facts  of 
experience  in  consciousness,  extending  over  a  wide  field,  and 
affording  not  only  a  starting  point,  but  a  vast  body  of  materials 
for  an  inductive  science  in  theology.  As  a  science  of  experience 
it  is  as  really  inductive  as  natural  sciences,  for  it  has  facts  of  ex- 
perience which  cannot  be  denied  to  be  actual ;  and  it  has  not 
only  real  experience,  but  experience  which  is  possible  for  all  the 


52   GROUNDWORK  OF  EVANGELICAL  LUTHERAN  THEOLOGY. 

subjects  of  Christendom.  As  a  science  of  faith,  it  has  for  the 
behever  in  the  facts,  a  surer  ground  of  the  valid  being  of  the  ob- 
jects of  the  Christian  consciousness,  than  the  philosopher  has  for 
the  reaHties  of  the  objects  of  the  natural  consciousness.  And  I 
have  made  these  extracts  from  two  great  philosophers  to  enable 
the  reader  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  the  idea  that  all  ex- 
perience involves  a  contact  of  the  mind  with  tJie  objects  of  knowl- 
edge ;  that,  consequently,  the  experience  in  saving  faith  involves 
a  co7itact  of  divine  realities  with  the  soul ;  and  to  lead  him,  thus, 
to  realize  the  importance  of  the  realism  of  the  Bible — that  realism 
so  much  insisted  upon  by  LutJier.  "  The  positive  operation,  upon 
our  organs  of  consciousness,  of  the  objects  of  our  knowledge," 
which  is  so  difficult  to  ascertain  in  the  case  of  the  world-con- 
sciousness, divine  revelation  has  made  clear  and  certain  for  the 
believer,  in  regard  to  the  God-consciousness,  the  religious  con- 
sciousness in  general,  and  especially  the  Christian  consciousness. 
It  teaches  that  there  is  an  actual  contact  of  the  objects  of  the 
consciousness  with  the  human  mind.  "  Because  that  which  may 
be  known  of  God  is  manifest  in  them  ;  for  God  hath  showed  it 
unto  them."  "  Their  conscience  also  bearing  witness,  and  their 
thoughts  the  meanwhile  accusing  or  else  excusing  one  another, 
in  the  day  when  God  shall  judge  the  secrets  of  men  by  Jesus 
Christ."  "  He  hath  not  left  himself  without  witness."  The  con- 
science is  a  point  of  contact  between  God  and  men — the  point 
of  men's  knowing  together  with  God.  It  is  not  a  faculty  for 
originating  the  knowledge  of  God,  but  a  receptivity  for  the  reve- 
lation of  God,  "  Whom,  therefore,  ye  ignorantly  worship.  Him 
declare  I  unto  you.  God,  that  made  the  world  and  all  things 
therein,  seeing  that  He  is  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  dwelleth  not 
in  temples  made  with  hands  ;  neither  is  worshiped  with  men's 
hands,  as  though  he  needed  anything,  seeing  He  giveth  to  all 
life,  breath,  and  all  things ;  and  hath  made  of  one  blood  all 
nations  of  men  for  to  dwell  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  hath 
determined  the  times  before  appointed,  and  the  bounds  of  their 
habitation  ;  that  they  should  seek  the  Lord,  if  haply  they  might 
feel  after  Him,  and  find  Him,  though  He  be  not  far  from  every 
one  of  us  ;  for  in  Him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being." 
While  without  revelation  there  would  be  no  certainty  of  the  ob- 
jects of  religious  faith,  with  revelation  there  is  to  the  Christian 
believer  a  clearer  ground  of  the  valid  being  of  the  objects  of  the 


TPIE    PRINCIPLE    OF   THE    REFORMATION,  THE    GROUNDWORK.     53 

Christian  consciousness  than  there  is  even  for  that  of  those  of 
the  natural  consciousness.  The  specific  and  precise  point  of  this 
certainty  in  the  Christian  consciousness,  namely,  the  y^^tY  of  justi- 
fication by  faith,  assurance  of  salvation,  the  certainty  of  saving 
truth,  must  be  exhibited  as  tJie  groiindvcork  of  our  theology. 

We  must  distinguish  the  great  principle  of  the  Lutheran 
Reformation,  in  both  its  aspects,  namely,  justification  as  a  fact 
of  experience,  and  the  clearness  and  certainty  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  in  the  experience  of  the  believer,  as  the  only  rule  of 
faith  and  practice,  from  the  doctrines  concerning  justification 
and  faith,  and  from  the  doctrines  concerning  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures ;  the  former  belonging  to  the  groundivork ;  the  latter  to 
the  system.  The  former  must  be  treated  as  the  presupposition 
of  the  science.  This  was  indicated  in  the  method  of  the 
Reformers.  They  made  the  fact  of  justification  by  faith  alone, 
the  experience  of  the  certainty  of  salvation,  the  groundwork, 
and  placed  it — if  not  in  form,  yet  in  fact — in  the  forefront  of  the 
system  of  doctrines;  while  the  later  theologians  treated  it 
simply  as  a  doctrine  co-ordinate  with  other  doctrines  of  the 
system.  It  is  important,  therefore,  to  discriminate  it  as  a  prin- 
ciple and  as  a  fact  in  the  Christian  life,  as  a  principle  independent 
of  science,  and  as  a  fact  realized  in  experience  and  verified  to 
consciousness  by  the  Word  of  God.  We  shall  thus  be  led  to 
treat  of  saving  faith,  of  this  point  of  certainty  in  the  Christian 
consciousness,  of  personal  assurance  of  salvation  through  faith 
in  Christ  alone,  and  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  as  through  the  sclf 
evidejicing  pozuer  of  their  saving  content,  b^commg  not  only  the 
authoritative,  but  the  chosen  rule  of  this  faith — as  the  presuppo- 
sition of  a  systematic  theology.  We  shall  be  led  also  to  notice 
the  light  which  springs  from  this  principle,  illuminating  the 
Christian  ivorld-viczv ,  the  idea  of  God  and  the  world,  of  religion 
and  man,  revealed  in  the  Bible  and  long  ago  practically  appro- 
priated, but  the  intcllcctnal  apprehension  of  which,  in  all  its 
fullness — as  a  necessary  idea  in  saving  faith,  an  intidtion  insepara- 
ble from  the  experience  of  salvation,  necessarily  involved  in  that 
experience,  and  destined  sooner  or  later  to  be  evolved  and 
brought  into  the  light  of  Christian  consciousness — the  intel- 
lectual apprehension  of  this  in  all  its  fullness  was  7iever  made 
before  the  days  of  Luther — was  made  practicable,  indeed,  for  the 
first  time  by  the  principle  of  the  Reformation.     This    light  we 


54    GROUNDWORK  OF  EVANGELICAL  LUTHERAN  THEOLOGY. 

must  apply  for  the  elimination  of  the  remains  of  the  heathen 
world-view,  and  to  the  enforcement  of  the  Christian  idea  in 
fundamental  questions  of  religion  and  theology. 

We  shall  thus  in  2.  first  part  endeavor  to  exhibit  the  principle 
of  the  Reformation,  as  the  presupposition  of  the  system  ;  and  in 
a  scco7id part  to  exhibit  the  liglit  which  it  sheds  upon  the  entire 
pathway  of  theological  science.  We  must  use  this  light,  as  the 
principle  of  the  Reformation  requires,  for  the  application  of  the 
true  Christian  idea,  the  Biblical  idea  of  God  and  the  world,  of 
religion  and  man — the  "  New  Wisdom,"  as  Luther  calls  it — to 
the  exclusion  from  the  province  of  theology  of  the  heathen  idea 
of  God  and  the  universe.  We  must  makeyfrj^',  saving  faith,  ijii- 
niediate  communion  with  God  in  Christ  as  a  reality,  a  matter  of 
experience,  and  the  certainty  of  divine  revelation,  as  infallibly  and 
intelligibly  exhibited  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  as  a  fact  fully 
verified  to  justifying  faith;  and  secondly  the  light  necessarily 
springing  from  this  ujiion  of  faith  ajid  tJie  Word — the  ground- 
work of  our  system. 


PART  1. 


THE   PRINCIPLE  OF  THE   REFORMATION  IN  BOTH    OF  ITS 
ASPECTS,   THE   MATERIAL  AND   THE   FORMAL, 
AS  THE  PRESUPPOSITION  OF  SYS- 
TEMATIC THEOLOGY. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    CONSCIOUSNESS,    OR    MORE   ESPECIALLY   SAVING 
FAITH,  IN    ITS    INDEPENDENCE   OF   SCIENCE. 

Assurance  of  salvation — faith  in  God  manifested  in  Christ,  the 
ever-hving  and  ever-present  Saviour,  the  reception  of  Christi- 
anity as  the  perfect  revelation  of  God,  as  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation — is  a  matter  of  experience  in  consciousness,  and,  there- 
fore, it  is  independent  of  science.  It  is  not  the  faith  which  rests 
on  testbnony  only,  but  the  faith  which,  in  addition  to  the  assurance 
produced  by  testimony,  is  attended  by  actual  expenence,  and,  con- 
sequently, by  inner  certainty  of  truth.  It  is  the  faith  which  is 
experienced  in  consciousness,  and,  consequently,  it  has  the 
knowledge  which  is  in  experience.  It  is  not  superstition,  for  we 
know  that  there  has  been  a  contact  of  its  objects  with  organs  of 
consciousness,  call  these  organs  what  we  will — religious  suscepti- 
bility, conscience,  etc.  Like  all  consciousness,  it  has  in  it  an 
element  of  knowledge,  but  it  is  experimental  knowledge  ;  it  in- 
volves knowledge,  but  not  necessarily  scientific  knowledge.  It 
is  experience  in  consciousness,  and  so  far  independent  of  science 
that  it  may  exist  even  when  it  cannot  be  scientifically  appre- 
hended or  demonstrated.  As  all  experience  in  consciousness 
has  a  cognitive  aspect,  so  justifying  faith,  assurance  of  salvation, 
being  experienced  in  consciousness,  has  in  it  an  element  of  knowl- 
edge. And  as  conscious  experience  under  impressions  made 
upon  the  sense,  is  knowledge,  so  conscious  experience  under  im- 
pressions made  upon  the  religious  susceptibility,  is  knowledge. 
In  the  one  case,  we  are  impressed  by  natural  objects;  in  the 
other,  by  supernatural  objects.  In  saving  faith  there  is  not  only 
the  objective  testimony  of  revelation,  not  only  the  testimony 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  miraculous  revelation  recorded  in  the 
Bible — in  which  it  would  be  only  the  persuasion  of  truth  on 
external  testimony — but  there  is  in  it  the  subjective  work  of 
grace,  the  inner  witness  of  the  spirit,  and,  therefore,  it  has 
knowledge  in  it,  the  knowledge  of  actual  experience.  Jesus 
said :    "  I    am    known    of    mine ;"   and    Paul    says :    "  I    know 

(57) 


58  SAVING    FAITH    IN    ITS    INDEPENDENCE    OF    SCIENCE. 

whom  I  have  beheved."  "  The  sheep  know  the  voice  of  the  true 
shepherd."  Like  the  faith  produced  by  the  external  world,  so 
the  faith  effected  by  the  gospel  as  the  power  of  God  unto  salva- 
tion, has  an  element  of  knowledge.  In  neither  case  is  faith 
blind ;  it  is  knowing,  but  its  knowledge  is  distinct /ro?n,  may  be 
antecedent  to,  and  independent  of,  all  mere  intellectual  investi- 
gations of  the  valid  being  of  its  objects.  As  the  natural  man, 
by  mere  experience  without  science,  knows  that  fire  burns  ;  so 
the  Christian  man,  from  mere  experience,  knows  that  Christianity 
is  a  special  power  of  God.  But  as  it  is  by  science  that  the  one 
knows  the  laws  of  combustion  ;  so  the  other  learns  the  science 
or  system  of  salvation,  by  scientific  investigation  of  the  revela- 
tion recorded  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  by  the  accurate 
tracing  of  the  history  of  it  in  the  experience  and  doctrinal  devel- 
opment of  the  Church,  that  is,  by  the  processes  of  a  systematic 
theology.  But  as  the  one  can,  for  all  ordinary  purposes,  enjoy 
the  benefits  of  fire  without  understanding  the  science  of  it ;  so 
can  the  other,  practically,  the  blessings  of  salvation  without  a 
scientific  theology.  As  justifying  faith  is  thus  distinct  from 
science,  and  independent,  for  its  existence,  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge, it  is  not  a  mere  co-ordinate  part  of  the  materials  of  the 
theological  system ;  and  it  is  no  more  to  be  absorbed  or  lost  in 
the  theological  science,  than  the  common  consciousness  of 
natural  knowledge  is  absorbed  or  lost  in  the  natural  sciences. 
Both  are  a  species  of  faith  ;  and  both  are  intelligent  states,  in- 
cluding elements  of  knowledge  independently  of  science.  And 
they  include  elements  other  than  those  of  mere  intellect,  ele- 
ments which  can  neither  be  given  by  science  nor  appropriated 
by  it.  The  elements  of  knowledge  in  faith  are  primitive  ele- 
ments ;  but  they  are  not  lower  forms  of  knowledge.  Faith  can- 
not, therefore,  be  dissipated  by  the  light  of  science. 

As  experience  in  consciousness  must  precede,  and  be  presup- 
posed in  natural  science  in  all  its  forms  and  branches,  whether  it 
be  that  of  matter  or  mind,  of  nature  or  man  ;  so  conscious  expe- 
rience, assurance  of  salvation,  justification  by  faith  as  a  fact  of 
experience,  must  precede  and  be  presupposed  in  theological  sci- 
ence. It  must  stand  in  the  forefront  of  the  system  ;  it  must  not 
be  treated  as  a  mere  doctrine,  co-ordinate  with  other  doctrines  in 
the  doctrinal  superstructure.  It  is  experimental  Christianity,  a 
new  life  ;  intelligent,  indeed,  but  independent  for  its  existence 


THE    ORIGIN    OF    THE    REFORiMATION.  59 

upon  doctrinal  propositions.  This  experience  of  justification,  this 
great  fact  in  Luther's  hfe,  is  the  prime  origin  of  the  Reformation, 
and  the  root  from  which  its  theology  must  spring  and  be  de- 
veloped. The  principle  of  the  Reformation  is  justification  by 
faith  alone,  and  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  in  the  self-evidencing 
power  of  their  saving  contents,  accepted  as  the  only  rule  of  that 
faith.  The  material  principle  is  not  the  doctrine  concerning 
justification  by  faith,  but  the  fact  of  justification  by  faith — the 
practical,  living  experience,  the  personal  assurance  of  peace  with 
God  ;  and  the  formal  principle,  or  rather  the  formal  phase  of 
this  principle,  is  not  the  doctrine  concerning  the  infallibility  of 
the  Sacred  Scriptures,  but  the  experience  of  their  certainty  and 
clearness,  the  actual  adoption  and  use  of  them  as  the  only  guide 
of  faith  and  life,  as  in  their  content,  the  power,  and  in  their  in- 
telligibility, the  rule  of  faith.  The  true  theology  of  the  Refor- 
mation, therefore,  consists  in  making  this  principle  the  ground- 
work, and  then  developing  the  ideas  springing  from  the  material 
aspect  of  it — the  experience  of  justification  by  faith — in  the  light 
of  the  formal  phase  of  it,  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  as  the  only 
infallible  source,- and  the  only  sure  criterion  of  faith.  It  must 
be  the  exposition  of  the  individual  Christian's  consciousness,  as 
the  starting  point,  and  then  also  of  the  consciousness  of  the 
Christian  Church.  But  it,  must  not  sever  this  consciousness 
from  its  living  connection  with  the  Word  of  God.  It  must  not 
be  merely  subjective;  but  to  be  complete  it  must  also  be 
objective,  must  be  the  exposition  of  the  truths  of  salvation  as 
presupposed,  indeed,  by  the  Christian  consciousness,  but  not  as 
evolved  out  of  it.  But  the  principle  of  the  Reformation  involves 
the  appreciation  of  Biblical  realism.  In  Christianity,  in  the 
saving  revelation  of  God,  there  is  a  real  contact  of  God,  as  a 
personal,  living  being,  with  the  human  soul,  as  a  personal, 
living  substance.  God  is  a  spirit,  but  also  a  real  existence ;  the 
soul  is  a  spirit,  but  also  a  real  substance.  The  spirituality  of 
the  parties,  as  it  is  no  hindrance  to  actual  communion,  so  it 
does  not  prevent  a  real  contact.  And,  consequently,  just  as  in 
the  common  consciousness,  so  in  the  Christian  consciousness, 
there  is  an  experimental  belief  in  the  reality  of  its  objects — a 
belief  which  is  independent  of  science.  Especially  is  this  true 
of  saving  faith.  This  realism  applies  to  all  the  various  forms 
and  manifestations  of  consciousness — to  the  several  modifica- 


6o  SAVING    FAITH    IN    ITS    INDEPENDENCE    OF    SCIENCE. 

tions  of  it,  as  world-consciousness,  self-consciousness,  moral 
consciousness,  religious  consciousness,  Christian  consciousness. 
The  belief  in  consciousness  is  induced  and  sustained  by  other 
than  scientific  processes.  It  is,  as  Oetinger  expresses  it,  not  so 
much  ordo  gcometriciis  as  ordo  generatvints,  the  result  not  of 
speculative  thought,  but  of  a  contact  of  the  realities  of  this 
knowledge  with  organs  of  consciousness — of  a  contact  not  sen- 
suous, indeed,  but  spiritual,  spiritual  yet  real — the  result  of  a 
relation  of  these  realities  to  the  susceptibilities  and  the  wants  of 
the  soul. 

§  I.   TJie  Belief  in  the  Common  Consciousness. 

In  the  world-consciousness  and  the  self-consciousness,  in  the 
first  place,  faith  is  independent  of  science.  Science  may  en- 
deavor to  trace  the  genesis  of  the  consciousness,  and  to  investi- 
gate the  valid  being  of  its  objects.  But  no  matter  how  great 
the  amount  of  philosophical  effort  in  searching  for  the  founda- 
tions of  knowledge,  for  the  ultimate  grounds  of  faith  in  its 
reality,  the  belief  itself  remains  unaffected  by  the  results,  so  far 
as  its  strength  is  concerned.  It  may  be  made  clearer  or  darker, 
but  not  stronger  or  weaker,  by  this  process.  The  results,  if 
favorable,  will  be  satisfactory  ;  if  unfavorable,  painful ;  but  it  will 
not  be  established  by  the  one  nor  destroyed  by  the  other.  To 
each  individual's  own  consciousness,  its  objects  will  be  real, 
whether  regarded  as  existing  outside  of  consciousness  or  not ; 
and  the  last  step  in  this  philosophical  discussion,  if  satisfactory 
to  men,  will  rest  upon  intuitions  of  the  mind  inseparable  from 
its  experience  in  consciousness,  and  which  secure  belief  in  its 
objects  independently  of  all  attempts  to  prove  or  disprove  their 
existence  as  external  to  it. 

The  speculations  of  men  may  lead  them  to  deny  the  real 
existence  of  an  external  world,  and  that  of  an  internal  world ; 
that  of  external  nature  and  that  of  the  inner  spirit — of  their  own 
personal  being.  But  to  each  individual's  own  consciousness, 
both  will  be  real,  and,  consequently,  men  will  effect  nothing  by 
their  philosophy.  The  inner  and  the  outer  world  will  continue 
to  be  to  them  as  if  they  were  real,  that  is,  their  natural  faith  will 
remain.  They  will  be  obliged  practically  to  treat  them  as  real. 
And  they  will  have  no  rest  for  their  thinking  until  they  receive 
the  testimony  of  consciousness,  and  regard  that  which  is  neces- 


VALIDITY    OF    THE    COMMON    COX3CIOUSNESS.  6l 

sary  to  the  thought  as  valid  in  being;  until  they  lest  in  the 
belief  of  the  reality  of  both  the  objective  and  the  subjective,  of 
nature  and  spirit.  Natural  faith  is,  thus,  like  religious  faith, 
produced  and  sustained  by  an  actual  contact  of  its  objects  with 
organs  of  the  mind.  All  that  science  can  do  is  to  show  what  is 
really  the  testimony  of  consciousness,  and  that  the  belief  in  the 
reality  of  its  objects  is  not  inconsistent  with  reason,  but  is 
actually  demanded  by  the  laws  of  thought ;  and,  thus,  to  distin- 
guish true  belief  in  objects  of  nature  and  mind  from  mere  natural 
superstition,  and  real  phenomena  from  delusive  appearances.  If 
their  philosophy  make  the  attempt  to  demonstrate  these  things, 
it  will  not  be  lost  labor,  but  it  will  only  have  made  more  clear 
and  satisfactory  what  was  fully  believed  and  entirely  credible 
before,  and  which  was  really  the  subject  of  belief  independently 
of  all  scientific  research.  It  will  only  have  shown  that  this  faith 
is  so  inseparable  from  the  conditions  of  mind,  that  there  is  no 
proper  beginning  or  end  of  thinking  without  involving  its  exist- 
ence. There  is  but  one  true  standpoint,  but  one  solid  resting- 
place,  for  speculative  thought,  and  that  is  the  common  con- 
sciousness. True  philosophy  recognizes  this,  joyfully  believes, 
and  gladly  ends  where  she  began.  False  thinking  is  obliged  to 
struggle,  in  its  tendency  to  ignore  all  reality,  with  the  necessi- 
ties of  intellect,  and  the  ceaseless  protest  of  the  practical  princi- 
ples of  our  nature ;  or  it  must,  at  last,  admit  that  the  objects  of 
consciousness  are  practically  real  and  true,  even  when  the), 
seem  to  the  speculative  apprehension  to  be  mere  illusions  and 
phantasms. 

§  2.    T!ic  Realities  of  tJie  Moral  Consciousness. 

As  with  the  consciousness  in  general,  so  with  the  Moral  Con- 
sciousness, the  belief  in  moral  realities — moral  being,  personality, 
freedom  and  responsibility.  Men  may  follow  the  track  of  spec- 
ulative science  in  the  mere  logical  understanding  until  they  have 
bound  all  things  in  the  chain  of  material  or  of  ideal  necessity ; 
until  they  have  ignored  all  moral  distinctions — the  distinction 
between  holiness  and  sin,  virtue  and  vice — and  explained  away 
all  the  phenomena  of  moral  being  as  merely  natural,  physical, 
the  mere  result  of  accident,  habit,  education.  Or  they  may  at- 
tempt logically  to  demonstrate  the  validity  of  moral  being  and  of 
moral  distinctions.     But  in  the  latter  case  they  will  have  done 


62  FAITH    IN    ITS    INDEPENDENCE    OF    SCIENCE. 

no  more  than  the  pointing  out  of  the  intuitions  and  the  discov- 
ering of  the  grounds  of  vahdity,  as  they  he  in  the  nature  of  our 
being,  to  be  the  necessary  regulative  of  all  true  thought,  as  dis- 
tinguishable from  delusive  and  imaginary  impressions,  and  as 
the  only  and  last  grounds  of  satisfaction  to  the  mind — to  be  its 
own  moral  order.  And  in  the  former  case  they  will  find  that 
just  in  proportion  as  they  appear  to  themselves  to  have  dis- 
proved or  explained  away  the  facts  of  moral  consciousness, 
they  will  have  removed  every  resting-place  for  their  thinking, 
and  deprived  themselves  of  all  possible  means  for  the  compre- 
hension of  the  moral  phenomena — the  moral  condition  and 
history  of  mankind.  They  will  come  to  no  conclusion  which 
shall  be  practically  satisfactory,  until  they  admit  the  moral 
intuitions,  and  are  content  to  ask  only  what  is  their  relation  to 
reason,  that  is,  until  they  admit  belief  in  moral  realities,  as  the 
necessary  standpoint  in  all  moral  science.  Practically  this  faith 
will  maintain  itself,  and  thus  show,  that  whether  so  recognized 
or  not,  in  science,  it  must  be  in  accordance  with  reason  and 
truth.  No  matter  how  much  men  may  have  in  common  with 
the  brute,  they  have  this  prerogative,  that  they  are  self-deter- 
mining and  free,  and,  consequently,  moral  and  responsible 
beings.  No  matter  how  much  the  impulses  of  the  animal  nature 
in  man  may  have  preponderated  over  conscience  in  all  the 
course  of  human  history,  yet  will  men,  at  last,  be  obliged  to 
recognize  the  reality  of  conscience;  and  the  ultimate  conclusion 
of  human  thought  must  be  that  conscience  is  not  only  real,  but 
that  it  is  the  ruling  principle  in  man's  being ;  and  that  all  his 
dispositions  and  actions  will  in  the  end  be  subjected  to  its 
power,  either  in  the  way  of  obedience  and  reward,  of  peace  and 
blessedness — or  of  disobedience  and  punishment,  of  fear  and 
shame.  There  is  in  every  sound  mind  and  uncorrupt  heart  a 
dissatisfaction  with  all  the  conclusions  of  the  skeptic  on  this 
subject,  which  will  respond  to  the  indignant  utterance  of  the 
poet : 

"Oh  !  lives  there,  heaven,  beneath  thy  vast  expanse, 

One  hopeless,  dark  idolater  of  Chance, 

Content  to  feed,  with  pleasures  unrefined, 

The  luke-warm  passions  of  a  lowly  mind, 

And  mouldering  earthward,  reft  of  every  trust, 

In  joyless  union  wedded  to  the  dust, 

Can  all  his  parting  energies  dismiss, 

And  count  this  barren  world  sufficient  bliss?" 


REALITY    OF    RELIGIOUS    OBJECTS.  63 

§  3.    TJie  Valid  Being  of  tlie  Objects  of  tlie  Religious  Consciousness. 

The  same  discovery  is  sooner  or  later  made  in  regard  to  the 
testimony  of  the  Religious  Consciousness — the  consciousness  as 
determined  by  forces  and  facts  of  reHgion.  Men  may  attempt 
to  explain  the  phenomena  of  religion  as  the  mere  results  of 
ignorance,  of  the  superstitious  notions  arising  from  an  unenlight- 
ened imagination,  or  the  stupid  fears  of  men  in  the  infancy  of 
human  history,  amid  the  overwhelming  forces  and  the  terrifying 
commotions  of  nature.  But  this  leaves  us  without  any  explan- 
ation of  the  source  of  the  susceptibility  to  these  fear's,  and  it  has 
been  found  so  inconsistent  with  rational  thought  that  it  has  few 
adherents  in  the  present  day.  Others  have  adopted  a  course  of 
reasoning  in  which,  while  the  subjective  validity  of  religion  is 
admitted,  the  reality  of  its  objects  is  denied.  While  they  admit 
that  the  religious  idea  is  not  the  result  of  ignorance,  but  of  the 
highest  cultivation  of  the  mind;  the  product,  not  of  an  unen- 
lightened imagination,  or  of  ignorant  fears,  but  of  the  very  laws 
of  thinking,  of  the  necessities  involved  in  the  full  development 
of  thought ;  while  they  admit  that  the  mind  cannot  think  satis- 
factorily, nor  the  heart  rest  in  peace,  without  the  idea  of  religion; 
they  still  regard  the  whole  matter  as  only  subjective,  and  receive 
it  only  as  the  regulative  of  thought  and  the  requirement  of 
feeling,  as  the  necessary  moral  order  of  the  rational  mind,  as  the 
inevitable  spiritual  state  of  the  sincere  mind  and  the  earnest 
heart,  without  having  objective  validity,  any  reality  of  its  objects 
as  existing  outside  of  the  consciousness.  But  just  as  Atheism 
in  all  its  forms,  so  this,  and  eveiy  form  of  Pantheism,  whether 
Acosmism  or  Pancosmism,  whether  ideal  or  material,  spiritual 
or  substantial,  will  never  be  practically  satisfactory  to  the  human 
mind  in  its  sober  state,  and  in  the  consciousness  of  its  real  and 
permanent  wants.  It  can  only  be  held  while  men  are  intox- 
icated with  "the  glory  of  the  idea,"  or  reveling  in  "the  eman- 
cipation of  the  flesh  " — states  of  humanity  which  are  neither 
normal  nor  abiding.  So  independent  is  the  belief  in  religious 
consciousness  of  the  operations  of  science  for  its  establishment, 
that  standing  upon  its  own  grounds,  it  will,  at  last,  cause  both 
head  and  heart  to  rebel  against  the  system,  which  admits  order 
in  the  religious  idea,  but  denies  the  reality  of  its  objects,  as 
much  as  they  do  against  the  Atheism  which  leaves  the  universe 
"  a  mighty  maze,  and  all  without  a  plan."      No  system,  which  is 


64  FAITH    IN    ITS    INDEPENDENCE    OF   SCIENCE. 

without  a  comprehensive  world-view,  and  without  a  spiritual 
solution  of  our  being  and  destiny,  can  be  permanently  accepta- 
ble to  sound  heads  and  sincere  hearts.  At  last,  men  will  find 
that  the  dictates  of  the  religious  consciousness  have  a  rightful 
claim  upon  their  faith ;  that  they  can  never  be  entirely  indif- 
ferent, and  say  they  do  not  care  what  is  above  them,  and  beyond 
their  present  life ;  that  they  can  never  satisfactorily  answer  the 
ever  recurring  life-questions :  What  am  I  ?  whither  am  I  going  ? 
what  must  I  be?  and,  what  should  I  do?  In  short,  men  can 
never  satisfy  the  wants  of  their  moral  being  without  admitting 
the  validity  of  their  religious  nature,  and  the  reality  of  its 
objects — God,  freedom,  responsibility,  immortality.  It  is  no 
doubt  true  that  the  ideas  of  the  divine  personality,  and  of  the 
personal  immortality  of  man,  have  only  been  brought  fully  to 
light  by  the  gospel.  But  it  will  not  do  to  say,  on  this  account, 
that  they  are  now  entirely  separable  from  the  general  religious 
consciousness.  This  consciousness  has  been  determined  in  this 
way  for  all  who  hear  the  gospel;  and  men  living  within  the 
bounds  of  Christendom  cannot  be  as  indifferent  to  them  as  the 
heathen.  The  ideas  are  now  here,  and  men  can  never  be 
entirely  at  peace  while  they  reject  them.  No  man  can,  now  and 
here,  be  a  constant  and  sincere  thinker,  and  yet  live  satisfac- 
torily, and  die  happily,  without  faith  in  the  fundamental  facts  of 
religion.  Absolute  pessimism  is  the  only  consistent  result  of 
skepticism. 

No  matter  how  far  men  may  travel  in  the  way  of  speculation, 
whether  in  physical  or  metaphysical  science,  if  their  journey  be 
successful  they  will  find  that  the  true  termination  of  it  will  be 
precisely  at  the  point  where  religion  begins  ;  that  they  should 
have  begun  their  course  with  it ;  and  that  the  only  advantage 
which  they  have  gained,  over  the  more  practical  mind  which 
had  not  stopped  to  question  the  validity  of  these  facts,  but 
always  acted  in  the  belief  of  them — that  all  the  compensation  for 
the  loss  of  time  and  spiritual  blessing,  consists  in  some  experi- 
ence— experience  always  valuable,  though  bitterly  made  and 
dearly  bought — experience  which  they  may  use  for  the  benefit 
of  others,  and  as  some  restitution  for  the  evil  which  their  skep- 
ticism has  done — happy  experience  of  escape  from  the  dangers 
of  the  abnormal  journey  which  begins  with  doubt  instead  of 
faith.     Of  the  multitudes  who  set  out  with  the  determination 


VALIDITY   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CONSCIOUSNESS.  6$ 

to  receive  these  facts,  only  when  they  have  a  scientific  basis  for 
them — who  act  upon  the  principle  that  they  must  either  demon- 
strate or  deny  them  ;  that  they  must  begin  their  inquiries  here 
in  doubt,  in  order  to  end  in  truth,  beHef,  certainty — few  have 
been  successful.  The  consciousness  is  religiously  determined 
independently  of  science ;  and,  consequently,  no  man  proceeds 
rationally  in  the  discussion  of  religion  who  does  not  begin  with 
faith. 

§  4.    The  CJiristian  Consciousness  especial!)'  is  Independent  of 

Science. 

All  that  we  have  said  of  the  belief  in  consciousness  as  inde- 
pendent of  science  is  true  in  regard  to  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness. Indeed,  as  we  have  already  seen,  for  the  Christian  be- 
liever and  the  Christian  theologian,  it  ought  to  hold  in  a  higher 
degree.  For,  while  reason  finds  it  so  difficult  to  establish  that 
ideal  realism  which  teaches  that  there  is  a  contact  of  the  objects 
of  our  knowledge  with  the  organs  of  consciousness,  the  Bible 
assures  us  of  that  spiritual  realism  which  teaches  that  there  is 
an  actual  contact  of  the  objects  of  the  Christian  consciousness 
with  the  soul — with  our  religious  susceptibility ;  and  especially 
that  this  is  the  case  in  assurance  of  salvation  through  justifica- 
tion by  grace  through  faith.  This  Biblical  realism  is  not  only 
important  in  theology',  but  its  light  shines  over  the  field  even  of 
natural  knowledge,  and  men  are  beginning  to  see  how  closely 
the  certainty  of  natural  faith  is  connected  with  that  of  the 
Christian.  The  day  will  indeed  come  when  science,  having 
concluded  and  decided  against  universal  skepticism  that  there 
must  be  some  rational  ground  of  this  faith,  and  having  dis- 
carded Atheism  and  Pantheism  as  utterly  failing  to  discover  it, 
will  not  only,  with  Des  Cartes,  find  the  ground  of  the  certainty 
of  our  belief  in  the  real  existence  of  the  objects  of  Conscious- 
ness, in  the  truthfulness  of  God — in  the  fact  that  He  makes  us 
by  our  constitution  so  to  believe,  and  that  He  cannot  be  sup- 
posed to  deceive  us — but  will,  with  the  Christian,  look  upon 
nature  as  an  actual  revelation  or  manifestation  of  God,  will  see 
that  the  Creator  of  the  world  is  actually  operating  upon  us  by 
the  same  Spirit  by  whose  agency  He  garnished  the  heavens  in 
the  work  of  creation  ;  that  by  that  same  Spirit  He  has  inspired 
men  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  a  special  revelation,  and  that  in  the 


66  FAITH    IN    ITS    INDEPENDENCE    OF   SCIENCE. 

regeneration  of  souls  He,  by  that  Spirit,  creates  men  anew  in 
Christ  Jesus  ;  and,  by  Him,  bears  witness  to  our  spirits.  Thus 
will  men  see  that  the  second  creation  is  not  only  consistent 
with  the  first,  but  that  it  illuminates  and  completes  it ;  that  the 
eternal  Logos,  who  was  made  flesh  for  our  spiritual  salvation,  is 
the  source  of  all  life  and  light ;  that  "  in  Him  is  life,  and  the  life 
is  the  light  of  men;"  that  they  will  never  be  able  satisfactorily 
to  explain  the  first  creation  until  they  heartily  accept  the  sec- 
ond ;  that  the  redemption  of  the  world  involves  all  the  laws  of 
creation  and  of  created  existences  ;  and  that  in  religious  ques- 
tions there  is  really  no  room  for  mere  rationalistic  explana- 
tions, for  the  acceptance  of  Christianity  as  a  merely  natural  re- 
ligion— that  there  is  but  the  alternative  to  choose  between  pure 
Naturalism  and  Special  Revelation; 

The  Christian  consciousness  is  the  human  consciousness  as 
determined  by  the  divine  power — the  miraculous  facts  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  work  of  Christ,  and  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
It  is  produced  by  a  contact  with  divine  revelation — with  that 
gospel  which  is  a  vital  power,  a  special  power  of  God  unto  sal- 
vation. The  Rationalists,  as  distinguished  from  the  Atheists  and 
Pantheists,  teach  the  personality  of  God  and  the  moral  and  re- 
ligious nature  of  man,  and  the  reality  of  the  objects  of  the 
moral  and  religious  consciousness.  But  they  deny  a  miraculous 
and  special  revelation,  and  endeavor  to  bring  Christianity  within 
the  category  of  general  revelation  ;  to  bring  it  within  the  range  of 
natural  religion,  treating  it  as  only  the'  highest  form  of  God's 
providential  education  of  men  in  morality  and  religion,  and  that 
He  is  thus  training  them  for  their  immortal  destiny.  But  they 
deny  that  there  is  any  miraculous  inspiration  in  the  Bible,  or  any 
miraculous  power  in  Christianity.  Men  may  satisfy  themselves 
in  this  way,  while  they  fail  to  look  at  the  facts  of  experience  ; 
as  long  as  they  make  religion  a  mere  question  of  the  logical  un- 
derstanding. They  may  speculatively  deny  the  necessity  of  the 
special  operation  of  divine  power,  and  of  the  miraculous  revela- 
tion of  divine  knowledge.  They  may  satisfy  themselves  with 
the  demonstrations  of  the  understanding  and  the  intuitions  of 
the  reason  ;  and,  forgetting  their  indebtedness  to  special  revela- 
tion— or  as  they  deny  that  character  to  Christianity,  to  the 
effect  of  Christianity  upon  the  mind  of  Christendom — for  the 
most  that  they  know  about  morality  and  religion,  they  make  too 


RATIONALISM    GIVES    NO    TRUE    SATISFACTION.  6/ 

high  an  estimate  of  the  powers  of  unassisted  reason.  They  for- 
get that  the  superiority  of  their  idea  of  God  and  the  world,  of 
rehgion  and  man,  over  that  of  the  heathen,  is  due  to  the  Bible. 
They  overlook  the  fact,  that  the  very  impulse  by  which  their  ra- 
tional ideas  have  been  developed  to  a  degree  so  far  transcending 
those  of  the  heathen  nations,  was  first  given  by  Christianity ;  that 
if  there  "  be  reason  in  history,  there  is  also  history  in  reason ;" 
and,  consequently,  neglecting  the  very  influence  by  which  they 
were  made  aware  of  the  intuitions  which  they  so  confidently  use, 
they  build  up  a  system  of  rationalism  in  religion  which  shall  ex- 
plain all  religions,  and,  of  course,  Christianity  among  the  rest,  as 
founded,  indeed,  in  truth,  but  still  only  natural  religion.  Thus 
they  may  so  far  ignore  special  divine  revelation  as  to  suppose 
themselves  really  to  be  independent  of  it,  and  that  they  are  able 
to  evolve  all  religious  ideas  out  of  the  mere  moral  and  religious 
consciousness,  as  derived  entirely  from  nature  and  reason. 
And,  thus,  they  may  mistake  their  supposed  demonstrations  of 
some  religious  truth  for  an  original  discovery  of  it  through  reason 
unassisted  by  special  divine  revelations.  They  do,  indeed,  re- 
gard all  the  moral  precepts  and  precious  promises  of  the  Bible 
as  ideas  and  expectations  originated  by  reason  without  miracu- 
lous revelation. 

But  this  can  never  be  done  when  the  question  of  religion 
comes  to  be  considered  in  connection  with  the  greatest  fact  of 
the  Christian  consciousness  and  the  most  blessed  hope  of  the 
Christian  man.  When  the  sincere  man  comes  to  the  question 
of  justifying  faith,  the  great  centre  of  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness, of  the  certainty  of  saving  truth,  personal  assurance  of  sal- 
vation, he  will  feel  that  if  the  Bible  is  to  give  satisfaction  it  must 
be  regarded  as  more  than  the  product  of  human  reason  ;  that  it 
must  be  received  as  a  special  revelation  of  God's  will.  When 
men  come  to  ask,  in  true  earnestness  and  personal  anxiety, 
What  am  I  to  expect  from  God  ?  In  what  relation  do  I  stand 
to  Him  ?  or  rather,  in  what  attitude  does  He  stand  toward  me  ? 
and  especially  when  they  come  to  dwell  sincerely  upon  the  re- 
quirements of  conscience,  the  reality  and  consequences  of  sin — 
facts  which  the  rationalistic  system  admits — when  they  practi- 
cally ask  how  a  sinner  may  be  forgiven  and  received  into  divine 
favor ;  how  the  heart  shall  be  released  from  the  power  and  freed 
from  the  pollution  of  sin  ;  how  it  shall  be  brought  under  renew- 


6S  FAITH    IN    ITS    INDEPENDENCE    OF    SCIENCE. 

ing  and  sanctifying  energy,  sufficient  to  raise  it  above  the  fasci- 
nation of  earthly  objects,  the  cravings  of  animal  appetites,  the 
impulses  of  depraved  passions,  and  to  fill  it  with  lively  aspira- 
tion and  life-giving  hope,  with  peace  and  joy  in  God;  in  short, 
when  they  soberly  and  coolly  contemplate  their  frailty  in  life, 
and  their  helplessness  in  death,  they  will  feel  that  the  Christian 
consciousness  of  peace  with  God  and  rejoicing  in  hope  of  His 
glory — the  assurance  of  salvation — cannot  be  something  that 
has  been  evolved  out  of  finite  nature  and  mere  human  reason. 

If  they  admit  that  there  are  men,  and  always  have  been  per- 
sons in  Christendom,  that  actually  have  personal  assurance  of 
salvation,  an  inner  certainty  of  peace  with  God,  and  of  the  pos- 
session of  eternal  life — then,  they  must  admit  that  here  is  a  fact 
which  cannot  be  rationally  accounted  for,  without  the  supposi- 
tion of  special  divine  revelation  ;  that  it  is  a  fact  produced  by  a 
power  higher  than  nature  and  other  than  man — and  a  power 
over  and  above  that  which  even  God  exercises  in  providence 
generally  and  ordinarily ;  that  it  is  by  an  extraordinary  mani- 
festation of  divine  power.  They  will  feel  that  it  must  be  the 
product  of  a  contact  of  the  supernatural  but  condescending  love 
of  God,  manifested  in  Christ  for  salvation,  with  the  soul  of  man, 
the  result  of  a  special  revelation  of  grace  and  mercy ;  that  we 
have  this  peculiar  peace  and  hope,  this  "  comfort  of  the  Scrip- 
tures" because,  and  only  because,  they  are  such  a  special,  mirac- 
ulous revelation.  It  is  for  this  reason,  and  this  only,  that  there 
is  more  comfort  in  a  single  page  of  the  Bible,  more  assurance, 
when  we  come  to  actual  experience  of  the  realities  of  life  and 
death,  in  a  single  promise  of  the  gospel,  than  in  all  the  specu- 
lations of  a  rationalistic  theology,  or  in  any  of  the  dreams  of  a 
mystical  philosophy.  In  short,  true  peace  and  hope  in  religion 
must  rest  on  special  revelation,  on  a  knowledge  of  God,  on  a 
communication  of  His  gracious  will,  which  can  never  be  properly 
explained  as  the  mere  product  of  a  development  of  reason.  And, 
as  we  shall  see  in  the  proper  place,  there  is  really  no  room  for 
mere  rationalism,  at  the  present  day ;  that  the  more  complete 
analysis  of  thought  has  shown  that  the  only  consistent  ground 
of  any  intelligent  opposition  to  special  or  miraculous  revelation, 
is  that  of  pure  atheistic  naturalism  ;  that  in  the  high  stage  of 
thinking  to  which  the  human  mind  has,  at  last,  come,  the  final 
choice  must  be    between  heathenism   and   Christianity,  down- 


UNION    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    CONSCIOUSNESS    AND    THEOLOGY.    69 

right  atheism    or  true    theism — the  theism  which   admits   the 
possibihty  and  desirableness  of  special  divine  revelation. 

§  5 .  Science  must  first  of  all  Recognise  the  Christian  Consciousiiess 
in  its  Independence. 

As  God,  through  the  powers  of  nature  and  mind,  determines 
the  consciousness  sensuously,  morally,  religiously ;  so,  by 
supernatural  and  superhuman  power,  by  special  power  through 
the  gospel.  He  makes  the  consciousness  a  Christian  conscious- 
ness. And  as  the  ordinary  exercise  of  His  power,  the  existence 
of  the  forces  of  nature  and  of  mind  derived  from  Him,  must 
first  be  recognized  on  the  ground  of  the  testimony  of  conscious- 
ness, though  its  effects,  as  realized  in  consciousness,  may  after- 
wards be  found  by  science  to  be  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
the  material  and  mental  world,  as  discovered  by  its  operations  ; 
so  His  supernatural  power,  through  the  gospel,  must  first  be 
recognized  by  effects  as  realized  in  the  Christian  consciousness 
— especially  in  its  central  point  of  saving  faith — independently 
of  all  mere  scientific  processes  of  knowledge,  though  its  opera- 
tions will,  on  the  most  thorough  investigation,  be  found  to  be  in 
accordance  with  the  scheme,  plan,  or  laws  of  redemption,  as 
they  are  discovered  by  the  scientific  study  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures.  As  the  common  consciousness  and  natural  science 
are  inseparable,  so  the  Christian  consciousness  and  theology 
should  always  go  together.  The  science  should  always  in  each 
case  recognize  the  independence  of  the  consciousness,  and  never 
separate  itself  from  its  testimony. 

While  the  Christian  consciousness  may  exist  independently 
of  theology,  the  latter  cannot  exist  without  the  former.  The 
former  should  be  regarded  as  having  priority  in  point  of  time, 
and  the  dignity  of  existing  for  its  own  sake ;  while  the  latter  can 
exist  only  for  the  purposes,  and  as  the  servant,  of  the  former. 
Like  the  natural  consciousness,  the  Christian  consciousness  pos- 
sesses a  light  of  faith  which  is  always  independent  of  science. 
As  the  former  is  produced  by  contact  of  the  mind  with  natural 
forces,  so  is  the  latter  by  contact  of  the  soul  with  supernatural 
powers.  Like  the  former,  the  latter  is  confirmed  by  the  practical 
principles  of  our  nature  and  by  the  actual  history  of  mankind. 
Like  the  former,  it  has  its  own  light  in  experience — a  ray  of  the 
highest  light  antecedently  to,  and  independently  of,  all  science. 


70  FAITH    IN    ITS    INDEPENDENCE    OF    SCIENCE. 

It  is  produced,  indeed,  through  the  instrumentahty  of  knowl- 
edge, but  not  necessarily  by  knowledge  in  a  scientific  form. 
And  it  has  a  light  which  cannot  be  ignored,  indeed,  without  the 
denial  of  all  true  grounds  of  science,  but  a  light  which  need  not, 
and  cannot,  be  demonstrated.  Being  the  light  in  which  all 
demonstrations  are  conducted,  and  which  makes  all  demonstra- 
tions clear,  it  cannot  itself  be  the  subject  of  demonstration.  It 
is  only  from  consciousness  that  faith  can  arise ;  it  cannot  be 
derived  from  logical  demonstration ;  and,  consequently,  th-e 
Christian  faith  being  experienced  under  the  impressions  of 
revealed  truth,  and  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  can  find 
itself  reflected  only  in  the  light  of  the  Bible,  and  corroborated 
only  by  that  divine  authority.  But,  thus  received,  the  facts  of 
the  Christian  consciousness — especially  those  involved  in  saving 
faith — produced  as  they  are  by  the  special  divine  influence  of 
the  historical  revelation,  and  by  the  operations  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  hearts  of  believers,  are  as  firmly  believed  as  those 
of  the  common  consciousness.  And  it  is  equally  enduring  and 
unchangeable  :  nay,  more  so.  Other  things  may  pass  away ; 
the  conditions  of  the  relation  of  objects  to  the  common  con- 
sciousness might  possibly  change  in  the  course  of  human  devel- 
opment. "  Old  things  may  pass  away  and  all  things  become 
new,"  in  the  relation  of  man  to  the  natural  world.  But  we 
know  that  the  relation  of  human  wants  to  the  scheme  of  grace 
revealed  in  the  Bible  will  ever  remain  the  same.  "  That  which 
is  born  of  the  flesh,  is  flesh ;  and  that  which  is  born  of  the 
spirit,  is  spirit."  No  merely  natural  or  human  power  can 
qualify  the  one  for  peace  on  earth  or  happiness  in  heaven,  and 
710  mere  hiunaii  reasoning  can  overcome  the  testimony  of  the  expe- 
rience of  snperJmnian  poiver  in  the  other.  The  concluding  words 
of  the  revelation  of  that  power  will  ever  be  found,  to  the  faith  of 
experience,  as  true  as  they  are  solemn  :  "  I  testify,  saith  the 
faithful  and  true  witness,  unto  every  man  that  heareth  the  words 
of  the  prophecy  of  this  book  :  if  any  man  shall  add  to  them,  God 
shall  add  unto  him  the  plagues  that  are  written  in  this  book; 
and  if  any  man  shall  take  away  from  the  words  of  this  prophecy, 
God  shall  take  away  his  part  from  the  book  of  life,  and  out  of 
the  holy  city." 


THE   SPIRIT    OF    THE    REFORMATION    AKIN    TO    SCIENCE.        /I 

§  6.  Science  in  its  True  Office  and  Prospects  Favored  by  the  Prin- 
ciple of  the  Reformation. 

We  have  thus  found  the  facts  of  the  world-consciousness,  the 
moral  consciousness,  the  religious  consciousness,  the  Christian 
consciousness,  the  intuitions  of  the  human  mind  and  the  dic- 
tates of  revelation,  to  be  in  vital  relation  to  faith  and  independ- 
ent of  the  processes  of  science.  We  have  seen  that  the  true 
position  of  science  is  not  above,  but  in  the  light  of  these  facts. 
Under  the  guidance  of  the  intuitions  of  the  mind  involved  in 
the  experience  of  the  common  consciousness,  she  has  a  large 
and  fruitful  field  of  operation  in  philosophy  ;  under  that  of  the 
dictates  of  revelation,  a  wide  and  rich  territory  for  theology. 
In  the  one,  she  can  increase  the  knowledge  and  foresight  of 
men  in  the  domain  of  nature  ;  in  the  other,  she  can  elevate  and 
enlarge  their  views,  enliven  and  strengthen  their  hopes  in  the 
sphere  of  religion,  and  thus  augment  their  power  and  extend 
the  range  of  their  influence  and  activity.  There  is  no  limit  to 
her  attainments,  or  end  to  her  progress  in  the  light  of  the  self- 
evident  truths  of  the  soul,  and  the  clear  facts  of  revelation. 
But  it  is  her  business  neither  to  ignore  nor  to  demonstrate  the 
insights  of  the  reason ;  neither  to  deny  nor  to  prove  the  discov- 
eries of  revelation ;  but  to  test  our  consciousness  by  the  laws  of 
thought,  and  thus  to  find  what  is  the  real  idea,  the  actual  tes- 
timony of  consciousness,  which  will  always  be  found  in  agree- 
ment with  the  true  requirements  of  the  thinking  mind.  And 
under  this  direction  and  guidance  she  will  find  that  she  is  walk- 
ing in  the  true  light  of  our  being. 

The  principle  of  the  Reformation  which  thus  makes  the 
Christian  consciousness  independent  of  science,  is  so  far  from 
limiting  the  operations  or  arresting  the  progress  of  the  scien- 
tific mind  in  natural  or  revealed  truth,  that  it  has  given  to  this 
spirit  its  true  starting  point  and  its  great  impulse.  It  has 
given  greater  power  and  life  to  all  sciences.  "  The  principle 
of  the  Reformation,"  says  Dorner,  "  opened  a  new  and  wide 
path  for  science,  not  simply  in  a  negative  way,  by  breaking  the 
yoke  of  foreign  and  external  bondage,  but  also  positively  by  its 
very  spirit  and  power.  Faith,  with  its  certainty,  placed  in  the 
innermost  of  man  the  primitive  image,  the  prototype  of  the 
certainty  after  which  science  strives — the  re-adjustment  of 
knowledge  and  being,  the  reception  of  the  latter  into  the  for- 


72  FAITH    IN    ITS    INDEPENDENCE    OF    SCIENCE. 

mer  and  its  thorough  illumination  ;  the  transplanting  of  the 
thinking,  which  still  stands  outside  of  the  reality,  into  the 
sphere  of  the  real.  That  primitive  image  of  certainty  is  the 
more  fruitful  as  faith  has  become  conscious  and  certain  of  the 
great  central  truth  to  which  all  other  knowledge  adheres;  in 
which,  in  regard  to  beginning  and  end,  the  entire  world  of  the 
knowing  possesses  a  permanent  illuminating  central  point,  so 
that  from  out  that,  in  unity  with  the  highest  divine  principles, 
a  connected  knowledge  may  be  developed."  This  being  the  re- 
lation of  the  Christian  consciousness  to  theology,  we  are  at  once 
led  to  see  the  importance  of  the  practicability  and  reality  of 
personal  assurance  of  salvation,  and  of  the  conscious  certainty 
of  saving  faith. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    PRINCIPLE   OF    THE    REFORMATION    A    REVIVAL   OF   THE 
PERSONAL   ASSURANCE    OF   SALVATION. 

The  Reformation  was  a  revival  of  the  personal  assurance  of 
salvation,  produced  by  the  gospel  as  the  power  of  God  unto  sal- 
vation to  every  one  who  bclieveth.  It  was  a  re-assertion  of  the 
fact  of  justification  by  faith  in  Christ  alone,  and  of  the  personal 
certainty  of  divine  forgiveness  through  Him.  It  was  the  appro- 
priation and  enjoyment  anew  of  the  free  salvation  which  is  an- 
nounced in  the  New  Testament,  and  proclaimed  by  the  Apostles 
as  the  great  characteristic  of  this  dispensation.  It  was  the  re- 
newal of  the  apostolic  answer  to  the  great  question :  What  must 
I  do  to  be  saved?  How  can  I  be  justified  in  the  sight  of  God? 
How  can  I  be  certain  of  my  salvation  ? 

§  I.   Christianity  the  Absolutely  Perfect  Revelation    of  God's 
Saving  Grace. 

Christianity  is  immediate  communion  with  God  in  Christ 
through  faith.  Christ  is  not  a  mere  messenger  of  God,  but  God 
Himself;  not  a  mere  symbol  of  the  divine  presence,  but  the 
divine  presence  itself,  God  manifested  in  the  flesh  for  the  salva- 
tion of  men.  All  religion  implies  communion  with  God  through 
faith.  But  this  is  possible  only  by  God's  revelation  of  Himself 
as  personal  Creator  to  us,  dependent  creatures  ;  as  reconciled 
Father  to  us,  sinful  men.  Christianity  is  the  completed,  the 
perfect  revelation  of  God.  From  the  beginning  of  human  his- 
tory God  has — in  addition  to  the  manifestations  of  His  eternal 
power  and  Godhead  made  in  nature  and  providence — given 
a  special  revelation  of  His  nature  and  relations  to  men, 
and  especially  of  His  gracious  will  toward  man  as  a  sinner. 
From  the  moment  of  the  fall  onward.  He  has — in  addition  to 
His  general  movements  in  the  world  of  nature  and  the  history 
of  man — carried  on  a  special  history,  a  history  of  saving  acts  of 
revelation.  Christ  is  the  fulfillment  and  completion  of  this  reve- 
lation.    He  is  the  absolutely  perfect  revelation  of  God.     All  the 

(73) 


74  THE    PRINCIPLE    OF    THE    REFORMATION. 

elements  of  divine  manifestation  culminate  in  Him — in  His  per- 
son and  work.  All  the  discoveries  of  God  made  to  the  heathen 
world,  and  even  the  disclosures  in  the  Old  Testament  revelation, 
were  only  preparations  for  the  full  manifestation  of  redemption 
and  salvation  in  Him.  The  law  before  revealed,  was  illustrated 
and  magnified,  satisfied  and  fulfilled,  in  Him  and  by  Him.  The 
prophetical,  the  kingly,  the  priestly  offices,  are  all  absorbed  in 
His  person.  The  revelation  of  His  eternal  priesthood  has  super- 
seded all  other  mediations  between  God  and  man,  and  put  an 
end  to  all  sacerdotal  functions  of  men.  "  There  is  one  God  and 
one  Mediator  between  God  and  men,  even  Jesus  Christ,  the  right- 
eous." By  the  sacrifice  of  Himself  once  for  all.  He  has  made 
an  end  of  all  propitiatory  sacrifices ;  for  He  is  both  priest  and 
sacrifice;  and  in  Him  we  come  at  once  to  God,  come  into  im- 
mediate communion  with  the  Father,  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  The 
divine  necessities  in  the  work  of  redemption  are  all  met  by  Him  : 
Deity  is  reconciled ;  atonement  for  the  sins  of  men  complete  ; 
salvation  is  full  and  complete ;  the  offer  of  it  free  and  gratuitous. 
No  more  prophet,  for  the  eternal  Word  Himself  "was  made 
flesh  and  dwelt  among  men" — is  ever-living  and  ever-present  for 
them.  "  He  is  the  way  and  the  truth,"  as  well  as  "  the  life" — 
"  the  life  which  is  the  light  of  men,"  "  the  light  which  lighteth 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world,"  the  absolutely  perfect 
revelation  of  divinity  to  man.  No  more  priest ;  for  the  Ever- 
lasting Priest,  "  who  is  made  not  after  the  law  of  a  carnal  com- 
mandment, but  after  the  power  of  an  endless  life,"  is  here.  No 
more  king ;  for  He  is  "  the  King  immortal,"  "  able  to  save  to  the 
uttermost  all  who  come  to  God  through  Him,"  possessed  of 
"  all  power  in  heaven  and  earth,"  and  destined  "  to  reign  until 
He  shall  have  put  all  enemies  under  His  feet." 

§  2.  Access  to  God  is  iiozv  Immediate. 
Men  are  now  to  go  directly  to  God  in  Christ.  In  Heathen- 
dom, there  was  no  conception  of  a  miraculous  approach  of  God 
to  man  ;  in  seeking  communion  with  the  divine,  men  tried  to 
attain  an  apotheosis ;  man  was  to  become  God.  In  Judaism  men 
had  immediate  divine  revelations;  they  looked  for  communion 
with  God,  deliverance  from  sin  and  the  enjoyment  of  God's  gra- 
cious presence  through  His  condescending  love  ;  they  expected 
God  to  come  to  man,  but  not  to  be  manifested  in  humanity.     In 


THE    UNION    OF    GOD    AND    MAN    IS    CHRIST.  75 

Christianity  God   has  become  man,  is  very  man  as  He  is  very 
God  ;  through  the  incarnation  of  the  eternal    Logos,  He  is  as 
truly  man  as  He  is  eternally  God.     In  Christ  there  is  a  real  union 
of  divinity  and   humanity.     In  heathenism    the    human    heart, 
yearning  for  divine  communion   and  longing  for   rest  in  God, 
sought  for  mediators  and  expiations.     Under  the  Old  Testament 
dispensation — as  a  preparation  for  the  advent  of  Christ — there 
were  divinely-appointed  priests  and  sacrifices  ;    But  the  "  comers 
thereunto   were  not  made  perfect."     Faith  was   directed   to  a 
promised,  a  coming  Saviour.     When  this   Redeemer  came,  all 
priestly  mediations   and    expiatory  sacrifices  were    superseded, 
and  access  to  God  became  immediate.     He  was  not  only  the 
condescending  love  of  God,  but  the  incarnation  of  the  personal 
divine  love — God,  divinity  in  humanity,  seeking  the  communion 
of  men.     The  Creator  becomes  the  Heavenly  Father ;  the  crea- 
tures, dear  children.     The  holy  God  becomes  the   reconciler  of 
the  sinful  world,  and  the  vessels  of  wrath  become  the  organs  of 
glory.     He  is  God  manifested  in  the  flesh,  to  be  "  seen  of  angels," 
but  "  believed  on  of  men."     He  could  say  :  "  He  that  seeth  me 
hath  seen  the  Father."     "  No  man,  at  any  time,  hath  seen  God ; 
the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  who  is  in   the  bosom   of  the 
Father  :   He  hath  revealed  Him."     In  Him  is  the  personal  union 
of  the  divine  and  the  human  natures;  the  perfect  revelation  of 
divinity  and  the  perfect  manifestation  of  humanity.     The  chasm 
between  Creatorship  and  creatureship  is  filled   up;  the  breach 
between  the  holy  God  and  the  sinful  world  is  healed.     "  God   is 
in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself,  not  imputing  their 
trespasses  unto  them."     God  is  reconciled ;  and  now  the  call  to 
all,  is  :  "  Be  ye  reconciled  to  God."     All  are  to  come  directly  to 
Christ,  and  in  Him  to  God.     The  divine  necessity  of  atonement 
in  the  work  of  reconciliation   has  been   met ;  the  only  human 
necessity  in  salvation  is   simple  faith.     He  is    the  beloved,  the 
beloved  whom  we  are   to  hear,  "  the  beloved  in  whom  we  are 
accepted"  of  God — the  Heavenly  Father — who  "  so  loved   the 
world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son  that  whosoever  be- 
lieveth  in  Him  might  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life  ;"  who 
hath  made  him  "  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of 
the  world,"  hath  "  set   Him  forth  to   be   a  propitiation   for  sin 
through  faith  in  His  blood  ; "   hath  mad2   Him    to  be  unto  us, 
"  wisdom  and  righteousness,  and  sanctification  and  redemption." 


'J^  THE    PRINCIPLE    OF    THE    REFORMATION. 

Full  salvation  is  provided  and  freely  offered ;  it  is  only  to  be 
accepted,  believed,  appropriated  in  full  assurance  of  its  certainty. 
He  is  "Immanuel,  God  with  us." 

§  3.   This  Couiiniinion  zvith  God  is  now  Personal — Practicable 
for  each  Individual. 

The  access  to  God  is  immediate,  not  only  for  the  race,  or  for 
the  Church  as  an  organism,  or  as  the  mystical  body  of  Christ, 
but  personal — practicable  for  the  individual  believer.  God  has 
not  only  come  to  mankind  in  the  Incarnate  Word,  but  through 
the  word  of  the  Incarnate  Word,  the  gospel,  and  by  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Holy  Ghost,  He  has  come  to  the  individual  believer. 
"  Ye  are  all  children  of  God  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ."  By  faith 
the  individual  soul  comes  directly  to  God  in  Christ.  It  enters 
into  immediate  communion  with  God  in  the  relation  of  father 
and  child.  "To  as  many  as  received  Him,  to  them  gave  He 
power  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  who  are  born  not  of  the  flesh, 
nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God."  "  When  the  fullness  of  time 
was  come,  God  sent  forth  His  Son,  made  of  a  woman,  made 
under  the  law,  to  redeem  them  that  were  under  the  law,  that  we 
might  receive  the  adoption  of  sons."  "And  because  ye  are  sons, 
God  has  sent  forth  the  spirit  of  His  Son  into  your  hearts,  cry- 
ing, Abba,  Father."  The  saved  soul  knows  no  mediation  of 
Church  or  priest,  knows  "  nothing  save-  Jesus  Christ  and  Him 
crucified."  It  receives  Him  as  its  all  in  all,  exclaiming  in  His 
presence  :  "  My  Lord  and  my  God  !"  It  declares  that  "  being 
justified  by  faith  we  have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  through  whom  also  we  have  access  unto  that  grace 
wherein  we  stand  and  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God."  It 
has  salvation  as  a  fact  of  experience,  and  hence  adds :  "  and  re- 
joice even  in  tribulation,  knowing  that  tribulation  worketh  pa- 
tience ;  and  patience,  experience ;  and  experience,  hope ;  and 
hope  maketh  not  ashamed,  for  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad 
in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  given  unto  us."  The 
only  human  necessity  in  salvation  being  faith,  the  subject  of  the 
faith  has  personal  assurance  of  the  salvation. 


§  4-    ^^^^  Revelation  in   Christ  declares  7iot  what  God  requires 

of  us,  but  what  He  gives  us;  and,  consequently,  is 

Assurance  of    Salvation  to  the  Believer. 

The  grace  revealed  by  the  gospel  is  prevenient  and  unde- 
served; it  does  not  demand  hoHness  before  it  offers  forgiveness 
of  sin,  and,  consequently,  justification  is  perfectly  gratuitous. 
It  requires  no  mediation  of  another  creature,  as  an  individual 
priest,  or  as  an  ecclesiastical'  organism,  neither  does  it  wait  for 
expiations  or  preparations  of  the  subject  himself  "  To  him  that 
worketh  not,  but  believeth  on  Him  that  justifieth  the  ungodly, 
his  faith  is  counted  for  righteousness."  The  pardon  is  free;  it 
is  offered  not  because  of  our  repentance  and  good  works,  but 
solely  out  of  grace  and  for  the  sake  of  the  merits  of  Christ. 
The  saving  revelation  declares  not  02ir  righteousness,  but  "  the 
righteousness  of  God,  which  is  by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  unto  all 
and  upon  all  that  believe ;  for  there  is  no  difference,  for  all  have 
sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God,  being  justified 
freely  by  His  grace  through  the  redemption  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus."  Repentance  and  good  works  are,  indeed,  inseparable 
from  this  faith,  but  the  justification  is  solely  by  grace  and  for 
Christ's  sake.  Forgiveness,  eternal  life,  are  all  promised,  not 
because  we  repent  and  love  and  do  good  works,  not  even  be- 
cause we  believe ;  but  that  we  may  repent,  love  and  do  good 
works,  nay,  even  that  we  may  believe.  "  We  love  Him  because 
He  first  loved  us."  "  God  commendeth  His  love  toward  us,  in 
that  while  we  were  yet  sinners  we  were  reconciled  to  God  by 
the  death  of  His  Son."  "  The  grace  of  God  which  bringeth 
salvation  hath  appeared  unto  all  men,  teaching  us  that  denying 
all  ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts,  we  should  live  righteous, 
sober  and  godly  lives  in  this  world,  looking  for  the  great  God, 
even  our  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ."  The  first  step  now  to  be  taken 
by  us  is  not  something  which  another  creature  can  do  for  us,  or 
something  which  we  can  ourselves  do  to  commend  us  to  God ; 
but  to  accept  what  God  has  done  for  us.  The  first  thing  to  be 
apprehended  in  this  salvation  is  not  some  nczv  relation  or  attitiide 
into  zvliicJi  we  can  put  ourselves  toivard  God,  but  the  nexv  relation 
and  attitude  in  which  God  stands  tozvard  us,  the  great  and  glo- 
rious characteristic  of  which  is,  that  "  He  is  just,  and  the  justi- 
fier  of  him  that  believeth."     The  result  is  indeed  a  new  relation 


yS  THE    REFORMATION    AND    PRIMITIVE    ASSURANCE. 

on  our  part  to  God ;  the  law,  from  a  mere  empty  abstraction, 
becomes  the  form  of  love,  is  written  in  the  heart,  incorporated 
into  our  life.  "  The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us  ;  for  we  thus 
judge  that  if  Christ  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead,  and  that 
He  died  for  all,  that  they  which  live  should  not  henceforth  live 
unto  themselves,  but  to  Him  who  loved  them  and  gave  Himself 
for  them."  But  the  cause  is  solely  grace  through  faith  ;  and 
consequently,  personal  assurance  is  an  element  of  saving  faith. 

§  5.  Personal  Assurance  of  Salvation  a  Characteristic  of  the 
Apostolic  CJmrcJi. 

In  this  sense  of  divine  forgiveness  and  personal  certainty  of 
acceptance  with  God,  the  first  Christians  lived  and  rejoiced. 
Those  who  had  seen  the  Saviour,  declared  that  they  had  seen 
"  His  glory  as  the  glory  of  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full 
of  grace  and  truth."  "  That  which  was  from  the  beginning," 
they  say,  "  that  which  we  have  heard,  which  we  have  seen  with 
our  eyes,  which  we  have  looked  upon,  and  our  hands  have 
handled,  of  the  Word  of  life  (for  the  life  was  manifested,  and  we 
have  seen  it  and  bear  witness,  and  show  unto  you  that  eternal 
life,  which  was  with  the  Father,  and  was  manifested  unto  us); 
that  which  we  have  seen  and  heard  declare  we  unto  you,  that  ye 
also  may  have  fellowship  with  us  ;  and  truly  our  fellowship  is 
with  the  Father  and  with  His  Son,  Jesus  Christ.  And  these 
things  we  write  unto  you  that  your  joy  may  be  full."  Paul, 
though  he  had  not  seen  Him  in  the  flesh,  says  :  "  I  know  whom 
I  have  believed,  and  that  He  is  able  to  keep  that  which  I  have 
committed  unto  Him  unto  that  day."  And  Peter  could  confi- 
dently address  Christians  generally  in  the  declaration,  "  Whom 
having  not  seen,  ye  love ;  in  whom  though  now  ye  see  Him  not, 
yet  believing,  ye  rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory; 
receiving  the  end  of  your  faith,  even  the  salvation  of  your  souls." 

§  6.  Its  Decline  in  tlu  Old  Catliolic  Chnrch. 

Soon  after  the  early  days  of  the  Church,  this  personal  assur- 
ance of  salvation  began  to  decline.  In  proportion  as  the  Church 
lost  this  simplicity  of  faith,  this  ardor  of  love,  this  joy  of  hope, 
and  in  the  midst  of  the  efforts  which  she  properly  made  to  pre- 
serve the  Christian  doctrines  against  the  perversions  and  delu- 
sions comincr  in  from  the  heathen  world,  and  aeainst  the  return- 


DECLINE    IN    THE   OLD    CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  79 

ing  errors  and  corruptions  of  Judaism,  men's  minds  were  turned 
away  from  the  experience  of  personal  salvation,  from  the  simple 
reception  of  the  great  fact  of  salvation  in  Christ,  to  intellectual 
questions  concerning  doctrines,  and  were  directed  more  to  belief 
in  doctrinal  propositions  than  to  faith  in  the  personal  Saviour. 
And  while  the  old  Catholic  Church  did  great  service,  intellectu- 
ally and  speculatively,  in  building  up  a  bulwark  against  heresies, 
by  her  scientific  statements  of  the  doctrines  concerning  God,  the 
trinity  of  the  Godhead,  the  person  of  Christ,  she  was,  at  the 
same  time,  led  into  an  intellectualism  which  in  a  great  measure 
neglected  the  living  power  of  the  gospel.  She  was,  thus,  led  to 
overlook  the  self-evidencing  character  of  saving  truth  in  its  vital 
relations  to  the  susceptibilities  and  wants  of  the  soul ;  to  neglect 
the  practical  bearings  of  the  truth  upon  the  consciousness,  and 
to  refer  the  question  of  the  certainty  of  it  entirely  to  its  forms  in 
the  understanding;  and  to  suspend  salvation  upon  belief  in  cer- 
tain doctrinal  propositions.  She  forgot  the  personal  assurance 
of  the  individual,  through  the  gospel  as  the  power  of  God;  the 
immediate  communion  of  the  believer  with  God,  through  living 
faith  in  the  personal,  living,  present  Saviour.  She  departed  from 
the  simplicity  of  that  faith,  in  its  personal,  experimental  nature  ; 
and  attached  an  undue  importance  to  "  the  pure  doctrine,"  as  it 
is  intellectually  apprehended  and  as  it  is  scientifically  expressed. 
In  her  overweening  estimate  of  the  scientific  statement,  the 
logical  formula,  she  fell  into  a  one-sided  method  of  presenting 
Christian  truth. 

As  the  question  of  saving  truth  had  become  a  purely  intel- 
lectual one,  and  the  process  of  the  appropriation  of  it  mainly  a 
speculative  interest,  the  determination  of  the  question  of  the  cer- 
tainty of  it  soon  passed  out  of  the  hands  of  the  individual,  and 
there  could  no  longer  be  personal  assurance  of  salvation.  Just  in 
proportion  as  the  truth  passed  from  experience  in  consciousness 
into  the  forms  of  the  logical  understanding,  it  was  transferred 
from  the  determinations  and  decisions  of  the  Church  at  large, 
into  the  power  and  control  of  the  more  learned  representatives 
of  the  Church.  The  decision  of  the  question  :  What  is  "  pure 
doctrine  ?"  and  what  must  a  man  believe  in  order  to  gain  the 
great  end  of  religion,  namely,  the  salvation  of  the  soul?  was 
committed  entirely  to  the  determination  of  the  bishops ;  and  as 
individual   bishops,  yea,  even   provincial  councils,  might  err,  to 


80  THE    REFORMATION    AND    PRIMITIVE    ASSURANCE 

the  decrees  of  cecumenical  councils  as  the  representatives  of  the 
Catholic  Church — the  Church  which  was  supposed  to  be  secured 
by  divine  promise  against  apostasy  from  the  truth,  and,  conse- 
quently, to  be  infallible.  Assurance  of  salvation  was  no  longer 
a  personal  matter;  certainty  of  truth  was  no  longer  expected  in 
the  way  of  personal  faith  in  Christ.  It  was  now  to  be  the  result 
not  of  inner  personal  persuasion  and  assured  belief,  but  of  the 
external  authority  of  the  Church  as  the  infallible  interpreter  of 
the  truth.  The  individual  could  have  no  personal  certainty  of 
saving  truth,  but  only  the  assurance  of  the  Councils  of  the  Church. 

§  7.  Its  Destruction  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

The  logical  consequences  of  this  process  were  fully  and  prac- 
tically brought  out  in  the  papal  infallibility.  The  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church,  more  practical  in  its  tendency,  occupied  more  with 
questions  of  anthropology  than  theology,  engaged  more  vigor- 
ously in  the  effort  to  conquer — in  its  way — the  world  for  Christ ; 
bent  more  upon  the  attempt  to  subjugate  the  nations,  to  bring 
all  mankind  under  the  control  of  the  Church — dealing,  conse- 
quently more  with  the  will  than  the  intellect —  completed  this 
process  of  withholding  the  individual  Christian  from  pei'sonal 
assurance  of  salvation.  All  saving  knowledge,  all  powers  of 
reconciliation  with  God,  as  well  as  of  the  regeneration  and  sanc- 
tification  of  the  soul,  were  now  supposed  to  be  in  the  possession 
of  the  visible  Church.  And  the  hierarchy  were  distinguished  as 
the  Church ;  the  laity,  as  only  the  children  of  the  Church  ;  and 
thus  was  introduced  a  priestly  mediation  between  God  and  the 
people,  between  Christ  and  believers.  In  the  work  of  reconcilia- 
tion with  God,  the  entire  multitude  of  the  laity  were  supposed  to 
be  without  any  direct  access  to  God's  pardoning  grace,  or  any  im- 
mediate communion  with  God  in  Christ.  To  the  Church,  that  is, 
to  the  clergy,  belonged  all  the  powers  of  salvation.  TJie  individ- 
ual could  expect  salvation  only  in  communion  zvith  her  and  in  con- 
nection with  her  offices;  and,  consegucjitly,  coidd  have  no  personal 
certainty  of  his  being  the  subject  of  the  divine  reconciliation  and  favor. 
Dependent  on  priestly  absolution,  yet  never  certain  of  the  right- 
ful ordination  of  the  confessor,  nor  of  the  reality  of  his  intention 
to  absolve ;  required  to  repent  and  confess,  yet  never  sure  that 
his  repentance  was  sufficiently  thorough  or  his  confession  suffi- 
ciently comprehensive;  he  coidd  never  be  assured  of  his  salvation. 


ROME    AND    PRIMITIVE    ASSURANCE  8 1 

Even  the  priests  had  no  personal  assurance  of  acceptance  with 
God.  As  individual  persons,  they  were  as  destitute  as  the  peo- 
ple of  the  power  of  immediate  communion  with  God.  Their 
communion  was  not  personal  communion  with  the  personal  God, 
but  with  impersonal  things,  with  the  Church  as  an  organism  and 
her  ordinances  in  their  opus  operatmn.  Even  liclincss  zcas  ?io 
longer  considered  a  personal  quality,  but  an  attribute  of  the  Church 
and  her  orders.  As  Luther  says  :  "  The  papists  say  of  the  whole 
body  of  which  they  consist  that  it  is  holy,  while  they  dare  not 
say  this  of  any  individual  person."  Of  this  holiness  the  individ- 
ual was  to  become  a  partaker  through  the  magical  influence  of 
her  mysteries — the  sacraments,  and  especially  the  sacrament 
upon  which  the  validity  and  efficacy  of  all  others  depended,  the 
sacrament  of  priestly  ordination.  The  certainty  of  truth  was  no 
longer  sought  in  the  self-authenticating  and  saving  power  of  the 
gospel  to  souls  seeking  salvation,  but  in  the  aiitJiority  of  the 
Cliurch  as  represented  by  the  papacy.  As  individual  bishops  and 
even  provincial  councils  might  err,  were  fallible — and  as  oecumen- 
ical councils  could  not  be  always  in  session — there  would  be 
periods,  such  as  the  intervals  between  the  conventions  of  oecu- 
menical councils,  when  there  would  be  no  infallible  organ  of  the 
Church's  authority.  This  authority  must,  therefore,  have  a  per- 
manent seat  and  be  exercised  by  a  single  person.  The  papacy 
alone  possesses  it ;  in  it  alone  is  the  infallibility  of  the  Church 
to  have  its  organ.  The  pope  alone  can  infallibly  know  the  truth. 
To  be  saved,  men  must  be  in  obedient  connection  with  the  Church 
under  a  legitimate  pastor,  that  is,  one  sanctioned  by  Rome. 

Thus  did  Romanism  completely  obsc2ire  the  primitive  personal 
assurance  of  salvatio7i.  She  said:  "You  must  be  saved  through 
the  mediation  of  the  Church."  Whether  she  spoke  of  grace  or 
of  works,  the  conclusion  was  always  the  same.  If  she  spoke 
through  those  of  her  organs  who  were  of  Augustinian  tendency, 
she  said  :  "  You  must,  indeed,  be  saved  by  grace,  but  this  grace, 
this  saving  grace,  is  in  my  hands.  God  at  Pentecost  poured  out 
this  grace  upon  me  and  conimittcd  it  to  my  keeping  and  dis- 
pensation. He  has  endowed  me  with  all  the  powers  of  salva- 
tion, forgiveness  of  sin  and  regenerating  grace,  to  be  wielded  by 
me  in  behalf  of  men  on  earth  and  in  purgatory,  until  He  come 
again  to  hold  the  final  judgment.  I  exercise  them  and  dispense 
their  blessings  at  my  will  and  discretion.  You  can  be  saved, 
6 


82  THE    REFORMATION    AND    PRIMITIVE   ASSURANCE. 

therefore,  only  if  you  are  in  a  state  of  obedience  to  my  dicta- 
tions ;  and  as  you  are  entirely  dependent  upon  my  offices,  and 
that  until  the  end  of  your  life,  yea,  even  in  purgatory,  you  can 
never  in  this  life  be  personally  assured  of  your  salvation." 

If  she  spoke  through  those  of  her  ministers  who  were  of 
Pelagian  proclivities,  she  said :  "  Works  are,  indeed,  necessary 
and  meritorious,  and  you  must  be  saved  in  part  by  human  works 
and  human  merits.  But  the  human  works  and  merits  which 
make  the  soul  acceptable  to  God,  are  not  the  works  and  merits 
of  humanity  as  such,  of  humanity  external  to  me,  but  of  the 
humanity  that  is  included  in  me,  of  humanity  in  a  state  of  obe- 
dience to  me  and  represented  by  me.  They  are  my  works  and 
merits  as  the  mystical  body  of  Christ — in  which  each  member 
is  dependent  on  the  merits  of  the  whole  body.  You  can  be 
justified  only  as  you  share  in  the  merits  of  the  saints  on  earth 
and  the  saints  in  heaven.  And  the  treasury  of  these  merits  is 
mine,  to  be  dispensed  at  my  discretion  ;  consequently,  you  can 
never  be  personally  sure  that  you  are  justified,  never  personally 
sure  of  your  individual  acceptance  with  God,  of  your  individual 
salvation." 

§  8.   The  Littheran  Reformation  the  Revival  of  this  Primitive  and 
Fundamental  Feature  of  True  Christianity. 

Now,  the  Lutheran  Reformation  was  precisely  a  revival  of 
the  personal  assurance  of  salvation  produced  by  the  gospel  as 
the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one — to  each  individ- 
ual person  that  believeth.  With  Luther,  salvation  once  more 
became  a  matter  of  personal  experience,  and,  together  with  this, 
of  personal  certainty.  With  this  experience  and  at  this  point 
the  great  Reformation  began.  So  great  was  his  sense  of  sin  and 
of  the  guilt  of  sin,  that  he  could  not  be  satisfied  without  per- 
sonal assurance  of  deliverance  from  its  condemnation  and  pollu- 
tion, and  this  he  could  not  find  in  the  answer  which  the  Church 
gave  to  the  inquiring  soul.  He  felt  the  necessity  of  immediate 
communion  with  God,  and  consequently  also  the  necessity  of 
pej'sonal  certainty  of  the  forgiveness  of  sin.  No  mediations, 
directions  or  exercises  of  the  Church  could  relieve  him  of  this 
anxiety.  This  was  his  bitter  experience  after  having  put  forth 
the  greatest  efforts,  and  with  the  deepest  earnestness,  in  the 
ways  which  she  had  pointed  out  as  the  most  meritorious  and 


ITS  ORIGIN  IN  Luther's  experience.  83 

the  most  likely  to  secure  the  divine  favor,  to  appease  the  con- 
science and  to  give  peace  to  the  soul.  He  could  not  find  it  in 
her  public  ordinances,  nor  even  in  her  mystical  piety.  Although 
deeply  versed  in  the  literature  and  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  mysticism,  and  greatly  benefited  by  them  ;  although 
intimately  acquainted  with  that  mystical  theology  which  had  all 
along — in  the  different  ages  of  the  Church,  and  in  the  midst  of 
her  deepest  corruptions  and  her  greatest  deviations  .from  the 
inner  life  of  Christianity — protested  in  the  name  of  the  Spirit 
against  reliance  upon  the  mere  outward  forms  and  ceremonies 
of  the  Church,  and  taught  the  necesssity  of  spiritual  and  im- 
mediate communion  with  God — yet  he  could  not  find  in  its 
teachings  and  experiences  tlic  certainty  of  justification,  the  assur- 
ance of  salvation.  The  mystical  doctrine  of  the  immediate  con- 
nection between  self-abnegation  and  union  with  God  could  give 
him  no  permanent  satisfaction.  Dreading  the  divine  displeasure 
at  his  sins,  and  destitute  of  love  to  God,  he  felt  that  he  could 
have  no  blessed  communion  with  Him.  The  guilt  of  past  sin 
would  not  permit  him  to  ignore  this  dread  of  divine  punishment, 
and  this  lack  of  love  could  not  be  supplied  in  the  presence 
of  this  fear.  Without  the  filial  fear  which  results  from  the 
union  of  a  reverent  love  and  a  confiding  fear,  he  felt  that  there 
could  be  no  satisfactory  relation  between  him  and  God.  A 
mere  self-emptying  would  not  be  immediately  followed  by  a 
"  being  filled  with  all  the  fullness  of  God."  It  would  be  imprac- 
ticable, indeed ;  and  if  even  possible,  it  would  not  remove  the 
hindrance  to  divine  communion.  Grace  could  neither  be  the 
merit  nor  the  effect  of  his  holiness,  not  even  of  infused  holiness. 
Love,  fear  of  God,  and  confidence  in  Him,  could  only  be  by  faith 
iji  God's  free,  nn7ncrited  favor.  God  is  love,  but  He  is  also  a 
spirit,  and  consequently  ethical,  holy  love.  Grace  must  thus  be 
prevenient  and  be  freely  offered,  or  faith  cannot  apprehend  it: 
He  felt  with  the  mystic  that  he  must  have  God  in  immediate 
communion,  but  he  felt  also  that  he  could  have  Him  only  if  He 
offered  Himself,  and  as  He  offered  Himself;  and  that  he  could 
have  assurance  of  salvation  only  as  God  manifested  his  right- 
eousness through  a  vicarious  satisfaction  to  justice,  only  as  He 
revealed  Himself  in  the  pardon  of  sin,  in  the  justification  of  the 
sinner  freely  and  gratuitously .  This  revelation  of  God  for  the 
salvation  of  the  soul  he  found  iit  Christ,  the  historical  but  ever- 


84  THE    REFORMATION    AND    PRIMITIVE   ASSURANCE. 

living  Saviour,  and  he  could  find  certainty  of  salvation  only  by 
venturing  upon  him,  by  a  personal  appropriation  of  his  merits 
by  faith.  Mysticism  regarded  justice  as  absorbed  in  love  ;  the 
Church  contemplated  these  attributes  alternately ;  Luther  ap- 
prehended them  in  their  union  in  Christ.  Only  in  justification 
by  faith,  therefore,  only  in  the  belief  that  God  for  Clirisfs  sake 
had  forgiven  his  sins,  was  there  for  him  assurance — personal  as- 
surance^of  salvation.  This  faith,  this  certainty  of  salvation,  he 
recognized  as  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  produced  through 
the  instrumentality  of  the  Word — the  revealed  Word — that  is, 
through  the  contents  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  And  having  re- 
jected the  authority  of  the  Church  as  the  ground  of  certainty, 
and  renounced  the  mystical  notion  of  immediate  inner  illumina- 
tion and  access  to  God,  without  the  special  assurance  of  the 
revelation  of  God  given  in  the  Bible — he  received,  at  once,  and 
once  for  all,  as  the  result  not  only  of  the  historical  evidence  of 
their  authenticity,  but  also  of  the  actual  experience  of  the  saving 
pozver  of  their  contents,  the  sacred  Scriptures  as  the  only  ride  of 
faith  a7id practice.  He  received  as  inseparable  the  fact  of  special 
divine  revelation  and  the  fact  of  personal  liunian  experience  of  the 
power  of  God  nnto  salvation.  His  constant  motto  was  the  7inion 
of  the  Word  and  faitJi,  faith  and  the  Word.  He  established,  for 
all  time  to  come,  the  right  and  6w\.y  oi  private  judgment ;  recog- 
nized with  unchangeable  faith,  the  s:ifficiency  and  intelligibility  of 
the  sacred  Scriptures  to  the  individual  inquirer  after  the  way  of 
life ;  revived  the  idea  of  the  iniiversal  priesthood  of  Oiristians, 
and  of  the  Jinion  of  all  believers  in  the  invisible  Church — which  is 
universal,  the  only  Catholic  Church,  embracing  all  true  believers 
scattered  throughout  the  world — in  the  true  Church  which  is 
never  perfectly  manifested  in  visible  organizations,  and  never  f idly 
and  infallibly  represettted  by  the  visible  Church.  As  Luther  made 
the  first  annunciation,  and  gave  the  first  clear  apprehension  of 
this  principle,  let  us  give  attention  to  his  own  exposition  of  it. 


CHAPTER   III. 

luther's  exposition  of  the  principle  of  the  reformation  as 
involving  personal  assurance  of  salvation. 

As  this  is  the  great  thing  which  is  to  be  the  groundwork  of 
our  theology,  the  reader  will  appreciate  the  profuseness  with 
which  we  quote  from  Luther.  This  personal  assurance  was  the 
great  theme  of  his  preaching  and  writings. 

§  I.   Tlic  Individual  may  not  rely  upon  the  Assurance  of  the  Visible 

Church  TlirougJi  any  of  her  Representatives,  but  he  can  and 

must  have  Personal  Certainty  for  Hi^nself. 

This  certainty  is  an  essential  element  of  true  Christian  faith. 
"  Assurance  is  especially  necessary  in  Christian  doctrine.  I  ought 
to  be  certain  of  that  which  I  hold  in  regard  to  God,  or  rather, 
of  that  which  He  holds  respecting  me.  It  was  a  shocking  error 
of  the  papal  doctrine  that  they  taught  the  people  that  they 
should  doubt  concerning  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  and  God's  grace. 
'You  are,'  said  they,  'to  acknowledge  that  you  are  a  sinner, 
and  such  a  sinner  as  can  by  no  means  be  certain  of  his  salva- 
tion.' If  the  papacy  had  been  guilty  of  no  other  sin  and  error, 
this  would  have  been  a  sufficiently  shocking  blindness  and  delu- 
sion, that  they  said  we  should  constantly  go  about  in  doubt, 
should  be  wavering  and  uncertain  about  our  salvation  ;  for  such 
doubt  takes  away  from  me  my  baptism  and  God's  grace  (Ps. 
li.  12  ;  I  Cor.  ix.  26;  Heb.  xii.  12  ;  2  Pet.  i.  lO  ;  Rom.  xiv.  2,  3). 
For  we  are  to  know  that  He  is  no  uncertain,  doubtful,  change- 
able God,  who  has  many  meanings,  and  is  like  an  uncertain  reed ; 
but  that  He  has  only  one  kind  of  meaning,  and  is  absolutely  cer- 
tain who  says  :  '  I  baptize  thee  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and 
of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  I  absolve  thee,  and  declare 
thee  acquitted.'  " 

In  the  invisible  Church — in  all  true  believers,  there  is  assurance 
of  forgiveness  of  sin,  but  it  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  authority 
of  the  visible  Church.  "  Who  will  assure  us  wherein  the  fathers 
may  not  have  erred — as  you  yourselves  acknowledge  that  they 

(85) 


86   Luther's  view  of  personal  assurance  of  salvation. 

have  often  erred — and  that  they  should  not  be  tested  by  and 
judged  according  to  the  divine  Scriptures!  But  you  say  that 
they  have  also  interpreted  the  Scriptures.  But  what  if  they 
should  have  erred  in  their  interpreting  as  well  as  in  their  lives 
and  writings!"  (Leipzig  Ed.,  Vol.  i8,  p.  141.)  "They  say, 'Whom 
shall  he  believe  who  refuses  to  believe  entire  Christendom  ? ' 
But  pray,  Magistri  Nostri,  what  is  it  that  you  call  the  Church  ? 
The  French  Sorbonne  ?  But  how  can  that  be  the  Church  of 
Christ  which  is  so  far  from  Christ's  word  ?  Christ  testifies  that 
His  sheep  hear  His  voice,  and  that  he  that  heareth  it  not,  is  not 
of  God"  (Melanchthon's  Answer  to  the  French  Sorbonne,  trans- 
lated into  German  by  Luther,  Vol.  17,  p.  6y^).  "From  this  it 
is  certain  that  the  saints  sometimes  err  also  in  faith."  ....  "  But 
those  perish  who  receive  their  error  for  truth  and  follow  it  as  an 
example."  "  If  the  saints  do  not  err  in  the  faith  and  truth,  why 
does  Peter  teach  that  we  should  increase  in  faith  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  Christ  (2  Pet.  ^^  1 1),  and  Paul  that  we  should  not  be  as 
children  driven  about  by  every  wind  of  doctrine  (Ephes.  iv.  12, 
14)  ?"  (Vol.  18,  p.  166).  "  For  you  must  in  this  matter,  and  every 
other,  so  build  certainly  and  firmly  upon  God's  Word,  that  even 
if  I  myself  should  become  a  fool — which  may  God  forbid — and 
recant  and  deny  my  doctrine,  yet  you  would  not,  on  that  ac- 
count, depart  from  it,  but  say,  if  even  Luther  himself,  or  'an 
angel  from  heaven,  should  preach  another  gospel,  let  him  be 
accursed.  For  you  must  not  be  Luther's,  but  Christ's  disciples  ; 
and  it  is  not  enough  that  you  say  Luther,  or  Peter,  or  Paul,  hath 
said  this,  but  you  must  fy  yourself  and  in  your  conscioice  feel 
Christ  himself,  and  nncliangeably  experience  that  it  is  God's  Word, 
even  though  all  the  world  should  contend  against  it.  As  long 
as  you  have  not  with  this  certainty  tasted  of  the  Word  of  God, 
and  hang  with  your  ear  upon  a  human  mouth  or  pen,  and  not 
with  the  ground  of  the  heart  upon  the  Word  of  God,  you  know 
not  yet  what  that  means  (Matt,  xxiii,  10):  Be  ye  not  called  mas- 
ters on  earth,  for  one  is  your  master,  Christ.  The  Master  teaches 
in  the  heart — through  the  external  word  of  His  preachers,  indeed, 
who  bring  the  word  into  the  ear ;  but  Christ  brings  it  into  the 
heart.  Therefore,  consider  for  yourself  You  have  persecution 
and  death  before  you;  there  I  cannot  be  with  you,  nor  you  with 
me ;  there  each  one  of  us  must  contend  for  himself,  and  over- 
come the  devil,  death,  and  the  world.     If  at  that  time,  you  would 


RIGHT   AND    NECESSITY    OF    PRIVATE   JUDGMENT.  8/ 

look  around  to  see  where  I  stay,  or  perhaps  be  agitated,  because 
I,  or  somebody  else,  spoke  otherwise — you  are  already  lost,  and 
thou  hast  lost  the  word  out  of  thy  heart ;  for  thou  cleavest  not 
to  the  Word,  but  to  me  and  to  others.  There  is  therefore  no 
help  in  this"  (Vol.  i8,  p.  190).  "Where  God's  Word  and  will 
are  clear,  we  will  not  wait  for  the  determinations  of  Councils  or 
Church,  but  fear  God,  ^o  forward  and  do  it,  without  thinking 
whether  there  will  be  a  Council  or  not.  For  I  will  not  wait  to 
see  whether  Councils  will  conclude  whether  /  sha/l  believe  in 
God,  the  Father,  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth  ;  in  Jesus 
Christ,  His  only  begotten  Son,  etc.;  nor  what  I  am  to  believe  in 
regard  to  sure  and  clear  parts  of  Scripture  which  are  necessary 
and  useful  to  me.  For  if  Councils  should  delay,  and  I  should, 
in  the  meantime,  die,  what  would  become  of  my  soul,  if  it  should 
not  know  already,  but  must  wait  for  the  Councils  to  determine 
what  it  is  to  believe  while  faith  is  immediately  necessary  ?"  (Vol. 
xviii.  p.  408.)  "  When  Christ  calls  upon  His  people  to  beware 
of  false  prophets.  He  recognizes  not  the  right  of  the  Pope  or  the 
Councils,  but  that  of  all  Christians,  to  decide  upon  doctrine."  In 
answer  to  the  decree  of  the  Pope  he  exclaims,  "Thou,  with  thy 
Councils,  hast  decided ;  now  I  also  must  decide  whether  I  will 
receive  it  or  not!  Why?  Because  when  I  come  to  die  thou 
wilt  not  stand  and  answer  for  me,  but  I  must  myself  see  to  it,  how 
I  stand,  and  that  I  am  certain  of  my  cause"  (Vol.  vi.  p.  182). 
"  When  we  attempt  to  lay  a  law  upon  men  that  they  should 
believe  so  and  so,  then  certainly  God's  Word  is  not  there.  If 
God's  Word  be  not  there,  it  is  uncertain  whether  He  desires  it, 
for  what  He  does  not  command,  we  are  not  certain  whether  that 
pleases  Him ;  yea,  we  are  certain  that  it  does  not  please  God, 
for  He  wishes  our  faith  to  be  grounded  entirely  upon  His  Word, 
as  He  says :  My  sheep  hear  My  voice  and  know  Me,  but  the 
voice  of  a  stranger  will  they  not  follow,  but  will  flee  from  him. 
"  Whosoever  believes  as  right  what  is  wrong  or  uncertain, 
denies  the  truth — which  is  God  Himself — believes  in  falsehood 
and  error,  and  holds  to  be  right  what  is  wrongf.  Therefore  it  is 
in  the  highest  sense  a  foolish  thing,  when  they  say  we  shall 
believe  the  Church,  the  Fathers,  the  Councils,  when  there  is  no 
Word  of  God  there.  They  who  give  such  commands  are  the 
devil's  apostles,  and  not  the  Church  of  Christ.  For  the  Church 
does  not  command,  unless  she  is  certain  that  it  is  God's  Word, 


55     LUTHER  S    VIEW    OF    PERSONAL   ASSURANCE    OF    SALVATION. 

as  Peter  says  :  Let  him  that  speaketh,  speak  as  the  oracles  of 
God.  But  they  are  far  from  showing  that  the  determina- 
tions of  the  Councils  are  the  oracles  of  God."  "  No  one 
can  command  the  soul,  unless  he  knows  how  to  direct  its 
way  to  heaven.  This  no  man  can  do,  but  God  alone.  There- 
fore in  matters  that  concern  the  salvation  of  the  soul  nothing 
but  the  Word  of  God  is  to  be  taught  and  received.  Tell 
me,  now,  how  much  wit  must  that  head  have,  who  would 
propose  law  at  a  place  where  he  has  no  authority  ?  Who  would 
not  consider  it  foolish  to  command  the  moon  to  shine  when  we 
please  ?  How  would  it  appear  for  those  at  Leipzig  to  lay  a 
command  upon  us  at  Wittenberg,  or  for  us  at  Wittenberg  upon 
those  at  Leipzig  ?"  "  Therefore,  every  man  believes  as  Jie  believes 
at  his  ozvn  peril,  and  must  see  to  it  that  his  faith  be  right.  For  as 
little  as  another  can  descend  into  hell,  or  ascend  into  heaven,  for 
me,  so  little  can  he  believe  or  not  believe  for  me.  And  as  little 
as  he  can  lock  or  unlock  heaven  for  me,  so  little  can  he  drive 
me  to  faith  or  unbelief"  "  For  it  is  a  free  work  which  concerns 
faith,  to  which  no  man  can  be  forced.  Yea,  it  is  a  divine  work 
in  the  soul."  "  It  would  be  better,  though  the  people  should 
err,  to  let  them  err,  than  to  drive  them  to  lie  and  speak  contrary 
to  what  is  in  their  heart ;  for  it  is  not  proper  to  prevent  a  less 
evil  by  a  greater"  (Vol.  xviii.  p.  395).  "  Therefore  I  have 
composed  very  few  articles,  inasmuch  as  we  have  without 
these  so  many  commands  of  God  to  do,  in  the  Church,  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  family,  which  we  can  never  fully  carry  out. 
Why  should  we,  or  of  what  use  would  it  be,  that  there  might 
be  many  decrees  and  determinations  made  in  regard  to  it  in  the 
Council  ?  especially  as  we  do  not  regard  and  keep  these  capital 
parts  which  God  has  commanded.  Just  as  if  He  must  respect 
our  jugglery  so  much  that  we  may  tread  His  solemn  command- 
ments under  foot"  (Vol.  xxi.  p.  206.  Anno  1539).  "It  is, 
therefore,  impossible  to  prevent  Juiman  dogmas  from  leading  men 
away  from  the  tnith,  as  Paul  says.  For  one  of  two  things  must 
happen,  either  that  we  will  despise  and  reject'  them  when  we 
hear  that  they  do  not  produce  piety  and  salvation,  or  that  the 
conscience  or  judgment  will  be  ensnared  and  choked  if  we  sup- 
pose that  they  do  m.ake  pious  and  must  be  held.  Therefore  we 
must  hold  to  the  bare,  pure  Scripture,  which  alone  teaches 
Christ"  (Vol.  xiii.    p.   266).     "  God  pours  out  the  Holy  Spirit 


ASSURANCE   AND    ELEMENT    OF    TRUE    FAITH.  89 

into  the  heart  who  says  in  the  heart  that  it  is  in  truth  no  other- 
wise than  it  is  in  the  second  article ;  that  the  Spirit  witnesses 
with  our  spirit;  that  a  person  attains  to  this,  that  he  feds  it,  that 
it  is  so ;  that  he  has  110  manner  of  doubt,  and  says  he  would 
rather  lose  body,  life,  wife,  and  child,  and  all  earthly  possessions. 
For  if  the  heart  did  not  feel  this,  it  could  not  bear  sufferings  and 
loss  for  the  faith"  (Vol.  xxi.  p.  116.  Anno  1539).  Assurance 
is,  thus,  regarded  by  Luther  an  essential  element  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith  and  spirit. 

§  2.  The  True  Church  Consisting,  according  to  Luther,  of  all  True 
Believers,  receives  God's  Word,  and  througJi  its  Instrumentality 
each  Individual  Attains  Personal  Assuj-ance  of  Salvation. 

"  What,  indeed,  is  the  Church  and  her  authority,  of  which 
they  rightly  and  with  truth  boast  that  she  is  governed  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  yea,  of  whom  Christ  said  :  The  Father  and  the 
Son  dwell  with  her,  and  what  she  says  and  does,  that  is  said 
and  done  through  Him ;  and  that  every  man  is  bound,  at  the 
peril  of  his  salvation,  to  obey  her?  For,  from  this  and  other 
promises,  we  are  so  far  agreed  in  this,  that  there  is  a  people  on 
earth  which  is  called  the  people  of  God  ;  where  He  will  be  the 
domestic  head  in  His  own  house,  prince  in  His  own  castle,  God 
in  His  church,  held  so  high  and  dear  of  God  that  He  does  not 
so  much  regard  the  entire  heaven  above,  but  that  He  will  come 
down  into  this  vale  of  tears  to  her,  and  to  be  with  her  to  the 
end  of  the  world."  "  Therefore  there  is  on  this  point  no  dis- 
pute, namely :  That  there  is  a  Church  on  earth,  and  that  we  are 
to  obey  her  as  the  mistress  and  empress  through  whom  God 
speaks  and  operates.  But  about  this  is  the  dispute :  Who  and 
what  that  Church  is  ?  To  decide  this  controversy,  it  avails 
nothing,  says  Augustine,  that  we  are  directed  to  human  words 
and  judgment.  But  in  this  way  we  can  be  certain  of  the  matter 
if  we  hear  how  Christ,  the  Lord,  Himself  describes  and  draws 
His  Church.  Now,  He  baptizes  and  paints  her  thus :  namely, 
that  she  is  the  congregation  who  love  Christ  and  keep  His  Word 
(for  by  this  we  know  and  feel  this  love) ;  My  Word  must  be 
theirs,  says  He,  and  kept  or  held  to,  else  it  will  accomplish 
nothing.  That  Word  which  is  called  the  Word  of  Christ  must 
be  here  the  standard  and  the  test  whereby  we  may  know  and 
find  the  Church,  and  according  to  which  she  must  direct  her- 


90     LUTHER  S    VIEW    OF    PERSONAL   ASSURANCE    OF    SALVATION. 

self."  "  Christ  binds  the  Church  to  His  Word,  and  gives  it  for  a 
certain  sign  by  which  we  may  prove  and  recognize  her."  "This 
rule  St.  Peter  gives  when  he  says  ( i  Peter  iv.  1 1 )  :  That  whoso- 
ever speaks  and  does  anything  in  this  house — would  work,  di- 
rect, give — he  is  to  remember  that  he  speak  and  do  God's  Word 
and  works,  or  abstain  from  speaking  and  working ;  and,  instead 
of  this,  speak  and  govern  at  home  in  his  own  house  or  king- 
dom. For,  outside  of  this  house,  the  world  has  another  word 
and  work.  Each  lord,  emperor,  prince,  father  of  a  family  in  his 
government  and  affairs,  where  notwithstanding  it  is  so  ordered 
also,  when  it  is  rightly  governed,  that  all  things  should  proceed 
according  to  the  will  and  mind  of  the  master  of  the  house  or 
country.  Although  the  domestic  and  court  servants  are  roguish 
and  wicked,  still  the  order  and  work  of  the  master  proceeds  as 
he  says  and  commands.  But  in  this  house  where  God  is  Lord 
and  King,  He  will  also  have  such  speech  and  action  that  it  can 
be  said  that  nothing  else  than  His  word  and  work  is  done,  and 
done  by  virtue  of  His  command ;  and  that  every  man  may  be 
certain  of  this  comfort  himself  and  trust  Jiimsclf  to  it.  This  is  the 
beautiful  promise  to  the  overwhelming  glory  of  Christians,  that 
God  so  deeply  condescends  to  them,  that  nowhere  else  but  in 
them  and  through  His  Word  and  work,  mouth  and  hand,  will 
He  manifest  or  let  Himself  be  seen  or  heard.  And  by  this  He 
makes  a  great  difference  between  them  and  all  other  men,  so 
that  any  one  Christian,  however  lowly  he  may  be,  is  quite  an- 
other man,  and  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  is  held  in  higher  honor 
than  all  kings  and  emperors  and  princes,  and  the  whole  world 
together,  who  have  and  know  nothing  of  this  honor  and  distinc- 
tion.  As  Moses  also  says  (Deut.  iv.  7),  that  we  may  be  so 
pleased  with  this  passage  of  the  word  of  the  gospel,  become  so 
confide Jit  and  bold,  and  cling  so  fast  to  it,  that  zve  would  leave 
every  thing  in  the  zvorld  for  it''     (Vol.  xiii.  p.  706). 

"  This  is  the  consolation  which  we  have  from  the  gospel,  that 
we  know  that  comfort  is  to  be  found  nowhere  but  in  the  Scrip- 
tures and  God's  Word.  And  for  this  reason  God  has  written  it 
(Rom.  XV.  5).  Here  he  says  that  the  Scriptures  are  comforting, 
or  give  patience  and  comfort.  Therefore,  nothing  else  can  com- 
fort the  soul  even  in  the  least  temptation.  For  whatever  may 
be  the  other  thing  with  which  a  man  may  comfort  himself,  and 
however  great  it  may  be,  it  is  still  all  uncertain.     The  heart  ivill 


ASSURANCE   SECURED    BY    THE    GOSPEL.  9 1 

always  ask :  WJio  knows  ivJietJier  it  is  rigJit  ?  Ah  !  If  I  were 
certain  of  it,  etc.  But  if  it  hangs  upon  God's  Word ;  this  cai 
neither  deceive  nor  fail  vie.  Of  this  I  am  certain."  "  Therefore 
let  us  prepare  ourselves  when  they  come  and  pretend  tliat  the 
Christian  Church  cannot  err,  that  we  may  refute  this,  and  say, 
these  are  not  the  words  of  men,  but  of  God ;  this  stands  here  in 
the  gospel,  that  Mary  was  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  yet  erred, 
and  in  Acts  that  there  was  a  Christian  congregation  of  those  who 
believed  and  had  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  yet  were  on  the  way  to 
error,  and  would  have  made  an  unchristian  law  if  two  or  three 
persons  had  not  resisted.  Therefore  we  are  to  believe  no  Coun- 
cils nor  saints,  except  in  so  far  as  they  agree  with  the  Word  of 
God"  (Vol.  v.,  p.  326). 

"And  again,  when  Paul  calls  the  gospel  an  office  of  the  Spirit, 
he  does  it  to  show  its  power  whereby  it  operates  quite  otherwise 
than  the  law  in  the  human  heart,  to  wit :  it  brings  luitJi  it  the 
Ho'y  Ghost,  and  makes  a  neiv  licart ;  for  when  a  man  driven  by 
the  preaching  of  the  law  into  fear  and  terror,  hears  this  preach- 
ing which  does  not  tell  what  God  requires  of  him,  but  what  He 
gives  to  him,  and  points  not  to  his  works  but  those  of  Christ, 
and  bids  him  believe  and  be  certain  that  He  will  for  the  sake  of 
His  Son  forgive  his  sins  and  receive  him  as  a  child — such  preach- 
ing, when  a  person  receives  and  believes  it,  elevates  the  heart 
and  gives  it  comfort ;  so  that  it  no  longer  flees  from  God,  but 
turns  to  Him ;  and  because  the  man  finds  and  feels  such  grace 
and  mercy  with  God,  he  becomes  reconciled  to  Him,  and  begins 
to  pray  to  Him  from  the  heart,  and  to  receive  and  honor  Him  as 
his  blessed  God.  And  the  more  such  faith  and  comfort  are 
strengthened,  the  more  will  desire  and  love  for  His  command' 
ments  increase.  For  this  reason,  therefore,  God  will  have  a 
word  of  the  gospel  diligently  preaclied,  that  the  hearts  of  men 
may  be  awakened  to  know  this ;  and  that  they  may  remind 
themselves  of  the  great  grace  and  mercy  of  God ;  tliat  the  Holy 
Ghost  may  become  more  and  more  pozverful.  Behold  all  this  is 
not  the  power  of  the  law  or  of  men,  but  a  neiv  heavenly  pozuer 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  zuhich  presses  Christ  and  His  zvork  into  the  heart, 
and  makes  a  real  book  of  it,  which  consists  not  in  letters  and 
mere  writing,  but  in  true  life  and  reality.  This  God  had  prom- 
ised before  to  give  through  the  new  preaching  of  the  gospel,  as 
Joel  (xi.  28)  and  elsewhere,  and  afterward  proved  also  in  public 


92    lutiier's  view  of  personal  assurance  of  salvation. 

examples  and  experiences  in  connection  with  the  outward  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel,  as  at  Pentecost  (Acts  viii.  12  and  x.  44), 
which  no  man  had  heard  or  seen  before  during  the  entire  preach- 
ing of  the  law,  showing  that  this  was  quite  a  different  preaching 
which  was  followed  by  such  power  and  efficacy"  (Vol.  xiv., 
p.  252). 

§  3.  TJic  Gift  of  the  Holy  Spint  is  not  to  the  Church  as  an  Organ- 
ism, but  to  the  Congregation  of  True  Believers  in  Christ  scat- 
tered throughout  the  World.  As  this  Invisible  Church  is  pro- 
duced by  the  Holy  Ghost,  He  is  given  to  all  its  Members.  There 
is  a  Personal  E)ijoyuient  of  the  Gracious  Presence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and,  consequently,  of  Personal  Assurance  of  Salvation. 

"  Before  Christ  gave  the  command  to  remit  sin.  He  breathed 
upon  them  (the  disciples),  and  said :  Receive  ye  the  Holy 
Ghost,  whosesoever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  them. 
Here  it  is  determined  that  no  person  can  forgive  sin  unless  he 
have  the  Holy  Spirit.  For  the  words  are  as  clear  as  light,  and 
cannot  give  way."  "  Where  then  are  the  keys  of  the  Pope  ? 
However  reluctant  he  may  be,  they  must  drop  from  his  hands, 
and  it  must  become  known  that  he  carries  his  flag  or  ensign 
without  authority.  For  here  it  is  clearly  written  that  no  man 
has  the  keys  unless  he  have  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  if  I  cannot 
have  forgiveness  of  sins  unless  the  confessor  have  the  Holy 
Spirit ;  and  if  no  one  can  be  cei^tain  in  regard  to  another  ivhether 
he  has  the  Holy  Spirit,  how  can  I  be  certain  of  the  forgiveness  of 
my  sins,  of  my  absolution,  and  gain  a  peaceful  conscience? 
The  latter  would  be  just  as  it  was  before."  "  I  have  used  this 
illustration  in  order  that  we  may  see  the  true  ground  of  this 
thing.  There  is  no  doubt  that  no  man  forgives  or  retains  sin 
except  he  alone  who  has  the  Holy  Spirit;  so  certain  is  this  that 
you  and  I  know  it,  as  this  word  of  Christ  certainly  shows.  But 
this  is  no  other  than  the  Christian  Church,  that  is,  the  congrega- 
tion of  all. believers  r  "Of  this  Church  every  man  may  be  certain 
that  she  has  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  Paul,  after  Christ  and  all  Scrip- 
ture, abundantly  shows,  and  as  it  is  briefly  expressed  in  the 
Creed,  when  we  say :  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Christian  Church. 
She  is  holy  on  account  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  she  certainly 
has."  "  Hence  the  Creed  is  so  arranged  that  the  Article,  For- 
giveness of  Sin,  must  come  after  the  Article,  A  Holy  Christian 


ASSURANCE    PRODUCED    BY    THE    HOLY    SPIRIT.  93 

Church,  and  before  this :  I  beheve  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  order 
that  it  may  be  known  that  without  the  Holy  Ghost  there  is  no 
holy  Church,  and  without  a  holy  Church  there  is  no  forgiveness 
of  sin"  (Vol.  xvii.,  p.  704). 

"  Now  there  are  in  the  world  various  nations,  but  Christians 
are  a  peculiarly  designated  people.  They  are  called  not  only  cc- 
clesia,  church  or  nation,  but  sancta  catliolica  Christiana,  that  is,  a 
Christian  holy  people  that  believe  in  Christ;  and,  therefore,  they 
are  called  a  Christian  people  and  have  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  daily 

sanctifies  them  not  only  by  the  forgiveness  of  sin but  also 

by  the  laying  aside,  expelling  and  destroying  of  sin  ;  and  hence 

they  are  called  a  holy  people For  he  that  does  not  believe 

on  Christ  is  not  a  Christian,  and  he  that  docs  not  Jiave  the  Holy 

Ghost  against  sin  is  Jiot  holy The   Church  is   to  be  called 

the  holy  Christian  people  not  only  in  the  time  of  the  apostles 
who  are  long  since  dead,  but  until  the  end  of  the  world.  We 
are  to  know  that  there  is  ahvays  on  earth  in  life  a  Christian  lioly 
people,  in  whom  Christ  lives,  operates,  governs  per  rcdemp- 
tionem,  through  grace  and  forgiveness  of  sins  ;  and  tJie  Holy 
GJiost per  vivificationem  et  satisf actionem,  through  daily  cleansing 
of  sin  and  renewing ;  so  that  we  do  not  remain  in  sin,  but  can 
and  shall  lead  a  holy  life  in  all  good  works,  and  not  live  in  old 
wicked  works,  etc. For  the  holiness  of  common  Christian- 
ity is  this  :  That  the  Holy  Spirit  gives  the  people  faith  in  Christ 
and  sanctifies  them  thereby  (Acts  xv.  9),  that  is,  makes  a  new 
heart,  soul,  body,  work  and  being ;  and  writes  the  law  of  God 

not  on  tables  of  stone,  but  in  fleshy  hearts  (2  Cor.  iii.  10)  

This  the  Holy  Ghost  effects  ;  it  sanctifies  and  awakens  the  soul 
to  a  new  life  which  will  be  perfected  in  that  other  life,  and  this 
is  Christian  holiness"  (Vol.  xxi.,  p.  285.  Anno  1539).  Thus 
is  the  certainty  of  forgiveness ;  thus  is  assurance  of  salvation 
not  the  result  of  the  absolution  of  the  visible  Church,  but  of  the 
gracious  presence  and  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  invisible 
Church — in  the  hearts  of  all  believers. 

"  That  I  may  briefly  speak  of  it,  there  are  two  kinds  of  clear- 
ness and  two  kinds  of  obscurity ;  the  one  outward  and  attaches 
to  the  Scripture  itself  And  here  there  is  nothing  dark  or  doubt- 
ful, but  everything  clearly  revealed  in  the  light  of  the  whole 
Word,  what  principal  parts  the  whole  Scripture  contains.  The 
other  is  inward   in  the   heart  (i  Cor.  ii.  14),  that  a  person   may 


94     LUTHER  S    VIEW    OF    PERSONAL   ASSURANCE    OF   SALVATION. 

knozv  and  understand  the  spiritual  things  and  realities  which  the 
Scriptures  exhibit.  And  if  you  speak  of  this,  there  is  no  man 
on  eartli  who  understands  a  jot  or  tittle  of  the  Scriptures,  except 
those  zvho  have  the  Spirit  of  God.  For  in  this  respect  all  men 
are  by  nature  and  disposition  blind,  have  a  darkened  heart,  that 
although  they  read  and  speak  much  in  the  Scriptures,  they  do 
not  observe,  see,  or  know  its  realities ;  do  not  believe  earnestly 
and  truly  that  there  is  a  God,  etc.  For  the  Scriptures  or  even 
the  least  part  of  the  Scriptures,  no  man  on  earth  will  understand 
or  know  without  the  Holy  Ghost"  (Vol.  xix.,  p.  ii).  "  He  says, 
therefore,  that  the  spirits  may  be  tried  in  two  ways  whether  they 
be  of  God.  First,  through  an  inner  judgment  in  which  each 
Christian  is  enlightened  by  the  Holy  Spirit  and  God's  grace  for 
himself  and  his  conscience,  that  he  may  conclude  and  judge  with 
the  utmost  certainty  concerning  every  doctrine.  Of  this  Paul 
speaks  (i  Cor.  ii.  15):  He  that  is  spiritual  judgeth  all  things. 
And  this  cej^tainly  belongs  to  fait  J i  and  of  necessity  to  every  Chris- 
tian^ even  though  he  be  not  a  preacher  or  in  a  public  office. 
This  same  we  have  above  called  an  inner  clearness  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. This  conviction  and  certainty  will,  indeed,  help  none  but 
him  who  has  it,  and  of  this  we  do  not  here  speak.  And  I  mean 
that  of  which  no  man  should  doubt,  that  a  Christian  must  be  cer- 
tain in  regard  to  his  oivn  faiths 

§  4.  TJie  Holiness  Promised  to  the  Church  is  not  an  Impersonal, 
Unethical  Quality,  not  the  Holiness  of  the  Church  as  a?i  Organ- 
ism, but  Personal  Holiness — Holiness  which  must  be  Professed 
and  Confessed  by  the  Individual  Christian;  and,  consequently, 
all  Believers  can  have  Personal  Assurance  of  Salvation. 

"Here,  here,  at  Jerusalem,"  they  (the  Jews)  said,  "here  is  the 
temple  of  the  Lord ;  here  is  the  gate  where  men  must  enter  in 
unto  the  Lord,  offer  sacrifice,  burn  incense,  serve  God,  and  be- 
come pious."  For  as  he  (the  Psalmist)  does  not  simply  call  it 
gate,  but  the  gate  of  the  Lord,  he  means  the  gate  of  the  temple 
where  the  Lord  specially  dwelt  as  in  His  castle,  His  house  of 
state,  and  where  the  divine  service  was  mostly  exercised,  and  in 
the  highest  degree ;  but  here  (in  the  New  Dispensation)  is  a 
service  transcending  temple  and  incense  and  sacrifice.  Here  is 
the  true  temple,  the  true  gate,  the  true  divine  service,  the  true 
sacrifice  which  is  called  the  thank-offering,  of  which  he  speaks 


HUSS  S    CONFESSION    OF    A    HOLY    CHRISTIAN    CHURCH.  95 

in  the  next  verse,  and  will  hereafter  say  more.  There  went  in 
also  there  many  bad  men,  hypocrites  and  sinners,  to  the  gate  of 
the  temple.  But  at  this  gate  of  the  Lord  only  the  righteous  and 
holy  go  in  to  serve  the  Lord.  For  there  is  and  can  be  no  per- 
son in  the  Christian  congregation  and  a  member  of  the  Church, 
unless  he  be  really  a  believer,  that  is,  righteous  and  holy  as  the 
Article  testifies  :  I  believe  in  a  Holy  Christian  Church.  But  he 
who  is  not  a  believer,  nor  holy  and  righteous,  does  not  belong 
to  the  '  Holy  Christian  Church,'  and  cannot  enter  in  at  this  gate 
of  the  Lord,  cannot  pray,  offer  thanksgiving,  praise  or  serve 
God ;  does  not  know  Him,  although  he  corporeally  lives  among 
Christians,  even  though  he  holds  an  office  among  them,  as 
preacher,  bishop,  or  receives  the  sacraments  outwardly  with 
them,  as  John  says"  (i  John  iii.  6). 

"And  this  is  the  article  which  that  lovely  Council  at  Con- 
stance condemned,  together  with  this  verse  and  the  entire  Holy 
Scripture.  For  John  Huss  confessed  at  that  time,  and  there,  that 
there  is  a  Holy  Christian  Church ;  that  the  Pope,  if  he  was  not 
pious  and  holy,  was  not  a  member,  much  less  the  head  of  the 
Christian  Church,  though  he  did  hold  the  office  in  it  as  such. 
For  this  Huss  had  to  go  to  the  stake  as  a  heretic,  and  to  be  con- 
demned. But  much  more  is  Peter  condemned  (2  Pet.  ii.  13);  for 
he  calls  the  unrighteous  the  '  spots  and  blemishes '  of  the 
Holy  Church.  If  he  were  yet  alive,  the  devil  would  try  him 
before  these  holy  murderers.  And  John  freely  declares  :  '  He 
that  sinneth  is  of  the  devil.'  But  they  place  over  against  this, 
the  notion  that  though  the  popes,  bishops,  and  they  all,  sin  very 
much,  they  are  not  of  the  devil  nor  of  his  synagogue,  but  are 
members  of  Christ  and  God,  members  and  heads  of  the  Holy 
Christian  Church.  Yes,  they  are  members  of  the  Church 
as  spittle  —  sweat  —  stench  —  scabs  —  diseases  are  members  of 
the  body.  These  are,  indeed,  in  the  body  and  on  the  body ; 
yea,  they  are  the  spots  and  blemishes,  the  filth  which  the 
body  must  carry,  with  great  danger,  and  labor,  and  disgust. 
But  every  one,  I  hope,  by  this  time  knows  that  any  one  who 
regards  himself  a  Christian  must  also  regard  himself  as  righteous 
and  holy.  For  a  Christian  must  be  righteous  and  holy,  or  he  is 
not  a  Christian,  since  Christianity  is  holy,  and  the  entire  Scrip- 
ture calls  Christians  holy  and  righteous,  as  they  are  in  this  verse 
(Ps.  xciii.  21),  and  in  Daniel  are  often  so  called  (Dan.  vii.  27); 


96    Luther's  view  of  personal  assurance  of  salvation. 

and  this  is  not  pride,  but  a  necessary  confession  and  article 
of  the  faith."  "  But  we  are  to  know  that  in  our  person  as 
children  of  Adam,  we  are,  indeed,  condemned  sinners,  and  have 
no  righteousness  nor  holiness  of  our  own.  But  because  we 
are  baptized  and  believe  in  Christ,  we  are  holy  and  righteous 
in  Christ  and  with  Christ,  who  hath  taken  our  sins  from  us,  and 
gifted,  clothed  and  adorned  us  with  His  holiness.  Therefore, 
the  whole  Christian  Church  is  holy,  not  in  herself,  nor  through 
her  own  works,  but  in  Christ  and  through  Christ's  holiness,  as 
Paul  says  (Ephes.  v.):  '  Christ  loved  the  Church  and  gave  Him- 
self for  it,  that  He  might  cleanse  it  with  the  washing  of  water 
by  the  Word.'  He,  therefore,  who  is  afraid  to  confess  and  ac- 
knowledge that  he  is  holy  and  righteous,  acts  even  as  if  he 
would  say:  I  am  not  baptized;  I  am  not  a  Christian;  I  believe 
not  in  Christ ;  I  believe  not  that  Christ  died  for  me  and  bore 
my  sins;  I  believe  not  that  His  blood  has  cleansed  me  or  can 
cleanse ;  in  short,  I  believe  not  a  word  of  what  God  has  testified 
of  Christ  and  what  the  entire  Scripture  says.'  What  kind  of 
a  man  is  this  ?  What  Turk  or  Jew  is  such  a  desperately  wicked 
man  ?" 

"  Therefore,  in  addition  to  this,  He  touches  all  outward  ap- 
pearance of  person,  that  in  Christianity  no  appearance  of  person 
holds,  but  he  who  believes  is  righteous,  even  he  goes  in  at  this 
gate  unquestioned ;  every  believer,  whether  Jew,  Greek,  man, 
wife,  virgin,  married,  servant,  maid,  rich,  poor,  king,  prince,  no- 
bleman, strong  or  weak.  For  the  Jews  boasted  highly  that  they 
were  Abraham's  seed,  as  if  they  were,  on  that  account,  the  near- 
est, in  like  manner  as  now  our  priests  would  be  the  best,  and 
especially  the  nuns,  the  brides  of  Christ.  But  it  is  said  the 
righteous  enter  in ;  monks  and  nuns  enter  not  in,  unless  they 
first  become  righteous  and  Christian.  For  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  consists  not  in  outward  things  ;  the  kingdom  of  God 
Cometh  not  with  observation,  says  Christ ;  and  we  must  not 
say  :  lo  !  here,  or  lo  !  there ;  it  is  inward  in  the  heart.  But  this 
is  difficult  to  believe,  and  it  is  also  one  of  the  articles  of  those 
condemned  as  heretics"  (Vol.  vi.,  p.  530).  "  Because  we  are  all 
sinners  and  impure  in  ourselves,  therefore  must  the  Holy  Spirit 
perform  His  work  in  us.  He  gives  us  the  Lord's  words  and 
baptism,  and  His  power  in  addition,  not  only  that  you  may  be 
in  holy  orders,  but  also  personally  holy ;  but  in   this  way,  that 


CHRISTIAN    HOLINESS    A    PERSONAL    MATTER.  97 

you  shall  say,  Not  from  myself  am  I  holy,  but  through  the 
blood  of  Christ,  by  which  I  am  sprinkled,  yea,  washed  in  bap- 
tism; also  through  the  gospel  which  is  daily  spoken  to  men" 
(Vol.  X.,  p.  85). 

"  This  passage  (John  xiii.  25,  26)  is  now  a  very  consoling  pas- 
sage; and  it  is  well  to  mark  this,  as  we  heard  above,  that  He  will 
come  to  you  and  abide  with  you  forever ;  that  Christendom  has 
the  promise  that  the  Holy  Spirit  will  always  be  with  her ;  and 
not  only  this,  but  will  teach  and  guide  her  to  the  last  day,  as  we 
confess :  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost  and  in  the  Holy  Christian 
Church ;  by  which  is  testified  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  with  Christ- 
ianity and  makes  her  holy"  (Vol.  x.,  p.  84).  The  Romanists 
made  holiness  to  be  a  natural,  impersonal  quality;  but  Luther 
regards  it  as  an  ethical,  personal  attribute — an  attribute  not 
of  a  thing  but  of  a  person — not  an  attribute  of  the  Church  as 
an  abstraction  or  organism,  but  of  the  concrete  members,  of  all 
individual  believers.  "  Behold,  in  this  way  we  are  to  regard  and 
honor  the  Christian  Church  and  remove  the  filth  with  which 
those  have  bedaubed  her  who  have  applied  this  name  only  to 
ranks  and  orders,  while  yet  they  must  say  in  the  creed :  I  be- 
lieve in  a  Holy  Christian  Church,  the  Communion  or  Congrega- 
tion of  Saints,  etc.,  and  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  dare  not  and  can- 
not say  this  of  any  living  person  !  But  if  we  are  to  confess  the 
faith  rightly  :  A  Holy  Church,  etc.,  we  must  not  doubt  that  we 
are  baptized,  and  that  the  blood  of  Christ  is  shed  for  us.  If  you 
believe  this,  you  must  also  confess  yourself  as  holy.  For  it  is, 
indeed,  the  Holy  Ghost  who  bestows  upon  you  Christ  and  His 
holiness,  and  works  faith  in  you.  It  is,  indeed,  true  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  lets  Christians  occasionally  err,  stumble  and  fall, 
and  lets  sin  remain  ;  and  does  it  even  for  this  reason,  that  we 
may  not  have  complacency  in  ourselves,  as  if  we  were  of  our- 
selves holy,  but  that  we  may  learn  what  we  are,  and  from  whom 
we  have  holiness,  else  we  would  become  proud  and  rash"  (Vol. 
X.,  p.  86). 

Thus  does  the  assurance  of  salvation  become  a  personal  mat- 
ter. It  involves  the  formal  as  well  as  the  material  principle  of 
the  Reformation,  or  rather  both  phases  of  the  one  great  prin- 
ciple, the  union  of  faith  and  the  word — the  word  as  producing 
saving  faith,  and  faith  as  recognizing  the  word  as  its  source 
and  rule.  The  Holy  Spirit  through  the  word  produces  saving 
7 


98    Luther's  view  of  personal  assurance  of  salvation, 

faith  in  the  individual,  and  the  spirit,  given  to  him  through  this 
same  word,  makes  him  personally  certain  of  being  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  saving  truth,  and,  thus,  personally  assured  of  salva- 
tion. And  this  leads  us  more  particularly  to  notice  the  connec- 
tion of  the  inner  witness  of  the  Spirit  with  His  external  testimony 
in  historical  revelation — the  fact,  that  according  to  the  principle 
of  the  Reformation,  assurance  of  salvation  is  a  matter  of  inner, 
conscious  experience,  as  well  as  of  objective  certainty. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  christian's    INNER  ASSURANCE  OF  SALVATION   THROUGH   SUB- 
JECTIVE EXPERIENCE,  AND  HIS  CERTAINTY  OF  OBJECTIVE  TRUTH. 

Miraculous  divine  revelation,  and  the  inner  witness  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  the  hearts  of  believers,  are  inseparable  as  essential 
elements  of  true  Lutheranism.  According  to  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation,  the  assurance  of  salvation  is  inwardly  and  con- 
sciously experienced.  There  is  an  inner,  conscious  certainty  of 
reconciliation  and  peace  with  God.  It  is  produced  in  the  inner 
man  by  the  same  divine  operation  which  produces  faith.  It  is  the 
certainty  of  salvation  in  its  self-authenticating,  self-evidencing 
manifestation  to  the  consciousness  of  the  subject — the  Spirit  bear- 
ing witness  to  His  own  work.  Though  inseparably  connected 
with  the  external  word  of  God,  this  internal  movement  is  yet  dis- 
tinct from  it.  They  are  distinct,  divine  testimonies  ;  on  the  one 
hand  the  testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  divine  revelation,  and  on 
the  other,  the  witness  of  the  same  Spirit  in  the  heart  of  the  be- 
liever. It  is  the  Spirit's  witnessing  to  our  spirits,  and  making  us 
personally  certain  of  the  salvation  which  He  has  miraculously 
revealed,  through  inspiration  of  the  prophets  and  apostles.  It  is 
the  more  particular  testimony  of  the  Spirit,  His  immediate  and 
special  operation  upon  the  soul,  whereby  He  makes  us  personally 
and  consciously  assured  of  our  acceptance  with  God  ;  makes  clear 
and  certain  to  us  the  revelation  which  God  has  miraculously 
given,  the  special  divine  operation  for  the  redemption  of  men,  for 
the  restoration  of  filial  relationship  to  Him,  of  blessed  communion 
with  Him.  It  is,  indeed,  the  same  testimony  which  the  Spirit 
has  given  in  the  word  of  revelation,  but  it  is  in  a  less  historical 
form,  and  more  in  the  inner  form  of  knowledge  and  certainty. 

This,  as  we  have  seen,  Luther  recognizes  as  the  characteristic 
of  the  dispensation  of  divine  revelation  under  which  we  live.  In 
the  Old  Testament  the  testimony  of  the  Spirit  was  more  entirely 
through  the  external  historical  revelation.  It  was  to  be  pre- 
served as  a  precious  objective  treasure.  "  Thou  shalt  put  into 
the  ark  the  testimony  which  I  shall  give  thee."     It  was  to  be  an 

(99) 


100  INNER    ASSURANCE   AND    OBJECTIVE   TRUTH. 

abiding  covenant,  and  a  constant  source  of  light  and  comfort. 
"  It  shall  be  a  covenant  of  salt  forever  before  the  Lord,  unto  thee 
and  thy  seed  with  thee."  "All  the  paths  of  the  Lord  are  mercy 
and  truth  unto  such  as  keep  His  covenant  and  His  testimonies." 
"Blessed  are  they  that  keep  His  testimonies,  and  seek  Him 
with  the  whole  heart."  "Thy  testimonies  also,  are  my  delight 
and  my  counselors."  But  still  it  was  mainly  only  objective. 
In  the  New  Testament,  the  New  Dispensation,  this  testimony  of 
the  Spirit  was  to  take  a  more  inner  form  ;  and  the  prophets  were 
inspired  to  foresee  and  proclaim  this.  "  Behold  the  days  come, 
saith  the  Lord,  when  I  will  make  a  new  covenant  with  the  house 
of  Israel,  and  with  the  house  of  Judah,  not  according  to  the  cov- 
enant that  I  made  with  their  fathers,  in  the  day  when  I  took 
them  by  the  hand  and  led  them  out  of  Egypt ;  for  this  is  the 
covenant  that  I  will  make  with  the  house  of  Israel  after  those 
days,  saith  the  Lord  :  I  will  put  my  iaivs  into  their  mind,  and 
write  them  in  their  hearts  ;  and  I  ivill  be  to  them  a  God,  and  they 
shall  be  to  me  a  people ;  and  they  shall  not  teach  every  man  Jus 
neighbor,  and  every  man  his  brother,  saying,.  Know  the  Lord ;  for 
all  shall  knoiv  Me,  from  the  least  unto  the  greatest.  For  I  zvill  be 
merciful  to  their  iinrighteousncss,  and  their  sins  and  their  iniqidties 
will  I  remember  no  more!' 

This  promise  is  expounded  by  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  as 
realized  in  its  fulfillment  in  the  Christian  Dispensation.  And 
Peter  explains  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost, the  founding  of  the  Christian  Church,  as  the  fulfillment  of 
this  promise  of  the  Spirit  in  the  Old  Testament :  "  This  is  that 
which  is  spoken  by  the  prophet  Joel :  And  it  shall  come  to  pass 
in  the  last  days,  saith  God,  I  will  pour  out  my  spirit  upon  all 
flesh  ;  and  your  sons  and  your  daughters  shall  prophesy,  and 
your  young  men  shall  see  visions,  and  your  old  men  shall  dream 
dreams  ;  and  on  my  servants  and  on  my  handmaidens  I  zvill  pojir 
out  in  those  days  of  my  Spirit ;  and  they  shall  prophesy.  And  it 
shall  come  to  pass  that  whosoever  shall  call  upon  the  name  of 
the  Lord  shall  be  saved."  And  Jesus  Himself  applies  the  decla- 
ration of  the  prophet,  "They  shall  all  be  taught  of  God,"  to 
His  disciples,  and  gives  it  as  a  characteristic  of  His  Church.  So 
He  says  :  "  When  the  Comforter  is  come,  whom  I  will  send  unto 
you  from  the  Father,  even  the  Spirit  of  truth,  which  proceedeth 
from  the    Father,    He    shall  testify  of  me."     John    exclaims : 


WITNESS    OF    THE   SPIRIT    IN    THE    HEARTS    OF    BELIEVERS.    101 

"  Who  is  he  that  overcometh  the  world,  but  he  that  bcHeveth 
that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God  ?  This  is  He  that  came  by  water 
and  blood,  even  Jesus  Christ:  not  by  water  only,  but  by  water 
and  blood.  And  it  is  the  Spirit  that  beareth  witness,  because 
the  Spirit  is  truth.  And  there  are  three  that  bear  witness  in 
earth,  the  Spirit,  and  the  water,  and  the  blood ;  and  these  three 
agree  in  one."  So  Peter  makes  the  conscious  experience  of  sal- 
vation and  the  inner  assurance  of  it,  a  fulfillment  of  prophecy 
descriptive  of  the  New  Testament  dispensation  :  "  Whom  having 
not  seen,  ye  love ;  in  whom,  though  now  ye  see  not,  yet  believ- 
ing, ye  rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory  :  receiving 
the  end  of  your  faith,  even  the  salvation  of  your  souls.  Of 
zvliich  salvation  the  prophets  have  inquired  and  searched  diligently, 
who  prophesied  of  tJie  grace  that  should  come  unto  you." 

This  assurance  is  a  blessing  which  both  prophets  and  apostles 
make  peculiar  to,  and  characteristic  of,  Christianity.  Paul  de- 
clares that  if  any  man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none 
of  His  ;"  and  says,  that  "As  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  they  are  the  sons  of  God."  "For  ye  have  not  received  the 
spirit  of  bondage  again  to  fear;  but  ye  have  received  the  Spirit 
of  adoption,  whereby  we  say  :  Abba,  Father.  The  Spirit  itself 
beareth  witness  with  our  spirit,  that  we  are  the  children  of  God. 
And  if  children,  then  heirs,  heirs  of  God,  and  joint  heirs  with 
Christ."  "  Likewise  the  Spirit  also  helpeth  our  infirmities,  for 
we  know  not  what  we  should  pray  for  as  we  ought ;  but  the 
Spirit  maketh  intercession  for  us  with  groanings  that  cannot  be 
uttered.  And  He  that  searcheth  the  heart  knoweth  what  is  the 
mind  of  the  Spirit,  because  He  maketh  intercession  for  the 
saints  according  to  the  will  of  God.  And  we  know  that  all 
things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God,  who  are 
the  called  according  to  His  purpose.  Who  shall  lay  anything 
to  charge  of  God's  elect?  It  is  God  that  justifieth.  Who  is 
he  that  condemneth  ?  It  is  Christ  that  died,  yea  rather  that  is 
risen  again,  who  is  even  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also 
maketh  intercession  for  us."  "  For  ye  are  all  the  children  of 
God  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  For  as  many  of  you  as  have  been 
baptized  into  Christ  have  put  on  Christ.  There  is  neither  Jew 
nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is  neither  male 
nor  female,  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus.  And  if  ye  be 
Christ's,  then  are  ye  Abraham's  seed,  and  heirs  according  to  the 


I02  INNER    ASSURANCE    AND    OBJECTIVE   TRUTH. 

promise.  Now,  I  say  that  the  heir,  as  long  as  he  is  a  child,  dif- 
fereth  in  nothing  from  a  servant,  though  he  be  lord  of  all,  but 
is  under  tutors  and  governors  (the  Old  Testament  dispensation) 
until  the  time  appointed  of  the  father:  even  so  we,  when  chil- 
dren, were  in  bondage  under  the  elements  of  the  world  ;  but 
when  the  fullness  of  time  (the  New  Testament  dispensation) 
was  come,  God  sent  forth  His  Son,  made  of  a  woman — made 
under  the  law — to  redeem  them  that  were  under  the  law,  that 
we  might  receive  the  adoption  of  sons.  And  because  ye  are 
sons,  God  lias  sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  His  Son  into  yonr  lie  arts, 
crying  Abba,  Father.  Therefore  thou  art  no  more  a  servant,  but 
a  son;  and  if  a  son,  then  an  heir  of  God  through  Christ." 
Such  is  the  spirit  which  pervades  the  entire  New  Testament. 

Luther  insists  upon  this  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  this  self- 
evidencing  power  of  saving  truth  through  the  testimony  of  the. 
Holy  Ghost  in  the  heart.  As  it  is  inseparable  from  the  princi- 
ple of  the  Reformation,  let  us  attend  to  the  teachings  of  the 
great  Reformer  on  this  important  subject. 

§  I.   TJie  Christian  s  Inner  Consciousness  of  Cci'tainty. 

"  God,  therefore,  must  witness  to  thee  in  thy  heart  that  '  this  is 
God's  Word,'  else  it  is  not  determined.  Through  the  Apostles, 
God  originally  had  that  same  Word  preached,  and  He  still  has 
it  preached.  But  if  even  the  archangel  Gabriel  were  to  pro- 
claim it  from  heaven,  it  would  not  help  me.  I  must  have  God's 
own  word :  I  will  hear  what  God  says.  Men  may,  indeed, 
preach  the  word  to  me,  but  God  alone  can  put  it  in  the  heart. 
He  must  speak  it  in  the  heart,  or  nothing  results  from  it.  If  He 
be  silent,  it  remains  unspoken.  No  man  shall  be  permitted  to 
seduce  me  from  the  word  which  He  has  taught  me.  And  of 
this  I  must  be  as  certain  as  I  am  that  tzvo  and  three  are  five,  or 
that  the  whole  of  an  ell  is  longer  than  the  half  of  it.  This  is 
certain,  and  though  all  the  world  should  speak  against  it,  yet  I 
know  that  it  is  not  otherwise.  Who  determines  me  in  this  ?  Not 
man,  but  the  truth  alone,  which  is  so  certain  that  no  man  can 
deny  it."  "  Our  understanding  entirely,  and  without  any  decep- 
tion, dictates  this  ;  namely,  that  three  and  seven  are  ten  :  and 
though  it  can  give  no  reason  why  this  is  true,  yet  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  it  is  true.  The  understanding,  consequently,  is  itself 
bound,  in  that  it  is  more  determined  by  the  truth,  than  the  truth 


FILIAL    CONFIDENCE    OF    BELIEVERS.  IO3 

is  by  it.  There  is  also  sucli  an  imderstanding  in  the  CJuirch 
throjigJi  illunnnation  of  the  Spirit.  As  with  philosophers  no 
man  judges  concerning  universal  truths,  but  all  other  ideas  are 
determined  by  them,  so  also  it  is  with  us  respecting  the  mind 
of  the  Spirit,  zvJiicJi  jiidgetJi  all  tilings,  and  yet  is  judged  of  no 
man!' 

§  2.  TJiis  Conscious  Assurance,  according  to  LutJicr,  is  realized  in 
Inner  Experience — is  a  Fact  of  Persoiial  Experience  in  the  Indi- 
vidual Christian  life. 

"  God  sends  to  Christians  the  very  Spirit  which  Christ  has, 
who  is  also  a  child,  that  together  with  Him  they  may  cry, 
Abba,  Father  (Rom.  viii.  15;  Gal.  iv.  1-8)!  But  this  cry,  one 
feels  when  the  conscience,  without  any  vacillation  or  doubt, 
firmly  believes  and  is  certain  that  not  only  is  all  sin  forgiven  a 
man,  but  also  that  he  is  God's  child,  and  certain  of  salvation, 
and  is  able  with  joyous  assured  heart  in  all  confidence  to  call 
God  his  dear  Father.  Of  this  it  must  be  so  certain  that  it 
would  suffer  all  death,  yea,  hell  itself,  rather  than  be  deprived 
of  it.  There  may  indeed  be  a  struggle,  and  a  man  may  be  anx- 
ious and  concerned  lest  he  should  not  be  a  child  ;  and  he  may 
also  feel  God  as  a  wrathful,  stern  judge  over  him.  But  in  the 
conflict  the  childlike  confidence  must  at  last  prevail — however 
much  it  may  tremble  and  quake — else  all  is  lost.  When  now 
Cain  hears  this,  he  will  bless  himself  with  both  hands  and  feet, 
and  for  great  humility  say:  '  May  God  preserve  me  from  such 
shocking  heresy  and  presumption  !  Shall  I,  a  poor  sinner,  be 
so  proud  as  to  say,  I  am  a  child  of  God  ?  No  !  no  !  I  will 
humble  myself  and  acknowledge  myself  a  poor  sinner.'  Very 
well !  let  them  go  their  way  ;  but  be  you  on  your  guard  against 
them  as  the  greatest  enemies  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  of  your 
salvation.  We  also  know  full  well  that  we  are  poor  sinners ; 
but  here  the  question  is  not  what  we  are  and  do,  but  what  He 
is  for  us,  what  He  has  done  and  still  does.  We  speak  not  of 
our  nature,  but  of  the  grace  of  God,  which  is  as  much  more 
than  we  as  heaven  is  higher'  than  the  earth.  Does  it  seem  a 
great  thing  to  you,  my  beloved,  that  you  are  a  child  of  God? 
Then  let  it  also  not  appear  a  small  thing  that  God's  Son  has 
come,  born  of  a  woman,  made  under  the  law,  in  order  that  thou 
mightest  be  such  a  child.     Great  is  everything  that  God  does : 


I04  INNER   ASSURANCE   AND    OBJECTIVE    TRUTH. 

therefore  He  also  makes  great  and  joyful  courage,  intrepid 
spirits  who  are  afraid  of  nothing  and  masters  of  all.  Cain's 
work  is  a  contracted  thing,  and  makes  altogether  desponding, 
anxious  hearts,  which  are  good  for  nothing  either  in  suffering  or 
work,  and  which  tremble  at  the  rustling  of  a  leaf  (Lev.  xxvi.). 
There  is  2i  personal  certainty  ;  zue  can  feel  the  cry  of  the  Spirit  in 
the  heart ;  for  it  is,  at  the  same  time,  the  cry  of  our  heart,  and 
the  Spirit  cries  from  full  power,  that  is,  with  the  whole  heart. 
Hence  all  moves  with  such  confidence.  (Rom.  viii.  16-26.)  If 
then  thou  feelest  not  this  cry  of  the  Spirit,  then  rest  not  from 
prayer  till  God  hear  thee ;  for  thou  art  Cain,  and  it  is  not  well 
with  thee.  Thou  must  not  expect,  indeed,  that  such  cry  should 
be  alone  and  pure  in  thee.  Thy  sins  also  cry,  and  produce  de- 
sponding in  thy  conscience.  But  the  cry  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
must  overwhelm  this  cry,  that  is,  it  must  produce  a  confidence 
stronger  than  this  despondency  (i  John  iii.  19-22).  Thus  is  this 
cry  a  strong,  powerful,  unwavering  looking  from  the  whole  heart 
to  God  on  our  part,  as  of  little  children  to  a  loving  father.  And 
by  this  childlike  spirit  is  described  the  power  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ,  and  the  proper  work  and  the  true  divine  service,  as  the 
Holy  Spirit  operates  in  believers,  namely,  the  hearty  calling 
upon  God,  and  the  consolation  whereby  the  heart,  freed  from  the 
terror  and  fear  of  sin,  is  set  at  rest.  Where  the  faith  of  Christ  is, 
there  the  Holy  Spirit  effects  in  the  heart  such  comfort  and  child- 
like confidence.  The  witness  of  the  Spirit  is  precisely  this,  that 
through  His  operations  our  heart  has  comfort,  confidence  and 
filial  prayer.  That  we  may  regard  ourselves  children  of  God, 
we  have  not  of  ourselves,  nor  from  the  law ;  but  it  is  the  Holy 
Spirit's  witness,  who,  against  the  law  and  the  feeling  of  our 
unworthiness,  bears  in  the  heart  such  testimony,  and  makes  Jis 
ce7'tain  of  it.  This  testimony  takes  place  in  this  way,  namely, 
that  as  the  Spirit  works  in  us  through  the  Word,  we  feel  and 
become  conscious  of  His  poiver,  and  of  the  agreement  of  our  experi- 
ence ivitJi  the  ivord  or  declaration  of  the  gospel.  For  this  you  can 
at  any  time  feel  that  in  necessity  and  anxiety  you  can  receive 
comfort  from  the  gospel,  overcome  doubt ;  and,  can  firmly  co)i- 
clude  that y OIL  have  a  gracious  God." 

Thus  according  to  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  religion 
is  2L  personal  concern  and,  the  certainty  of  it  a  matter  of  inner, 
conscious  experience.     It  is  obligatory  on  every  man  and  practi- 


AN    ESSENTIAL    ELEMENT    OF   THE    REFORMATION.  I05 

cable  for  each  individual.     Every  man  may  go  to  Christ  directly, 
and  each  individual  can  come  into  personal  communion  with 
God  in  Christ  through  the  Holy  Ghost.     Others,  as  the  utmost 
that  they  can  do  for  him,  can  only  direct  him   to  Christ;  they 
cannot    mediate    between    him    and    the    Saviour;    and  he  can 
be  justified  by  no  work  or  merit  of  his  own,  but  only  for  the 
sake  of  Christ  and  of  what   He  has   done  for  him;    he  must, 
therefore,  go  directly  to  Christ,  must  appropriate  Christ  through 
faith,  and,  consequently,  can  have  personal  assurance   and  cer- 
tainty of  this  justification.     The  mission  and  work  of  Christ  are 
the  revelation  of  God's  gracious  will,  and  thus  faith  is  made  pos- 
sible, yea,  is  produced  by  that  same   grace  ;  and,  consequently, 
the  faith  which  appropriates    the  historical    Christ — who  ever 
liveth  by  His  meritorious  and  triumphant  work  to  save — has, 
necessarily,  in  it  the  element  of  assurance  of  salvation.     But  in 
addition  to  this  there  is   the  witness  of  the   Spirit.     The  Spirit 
who  produces  this  faith,  bears  testimony  to  His  own  work,  and 
thus  gives  us  assurance  of  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  that  is,  accept- 
ance with  God :  "  For,"  says  Luther,  "  where  forgiveness  of  sin 
is,  there  also    there   is  salvation."     How  strange   it   is  that  it 
should  be  so  little  known  that  this  was  not  only  a  real  but  an 
essential  element  of  the  great  Lutheran  Reformation.     It  should 
be  a  precious  thing  to  the  Lutheran  Church  to  find  that  she  had 
in  her  very  incipiency  the    essential    elements  of  the  modern 
development    of  spiritual    and    experimental    religion.     In   the 
experience  of  Luther,  and  in  the  great  principle  of  the  Reforma- 
tion lie  all  the  elements  of  evangelical  piety  and  the  revival  of 
true  religion.     It  was  the  same  spirit  which  afterwards  breathed 
in  Arndt,  and  the  millions  who  have,  in  every  succeeding  gen- 
eration, been    brought   to   Christ  by  his  writings.     The  same 
spirit  whiciriived  in  Spener,  and  produced  the  great  religious 
awakening  in  Germany,  and  which  was  the  source  of  the  mar- 
velous phenomena  of  Methodism  in  Europe  and  in  this  country. 
The  same  spirit  which  has  produced  the  great  revivals  of  our 
day.     They  are  all  cliaracterir^ed  by  this  interest  in  personal  assur- 
ance and  experience  of  the  certainty  of  salvation.    All  these  results 
were  involved  in  the  living  beginning  made  by  Luther,  all  are 
included  in  the  principle  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation  of  the 
sixteenth  century.     It  was,  indeed,  the  revival  of  true  Christian- 
ity, the  revival  of  the  experience  of  the  certainty  of  the  salvation 


I06  INNER    ASSURANCE    AND    OBJECTIVE    TRUTH. 

produced  by  the  gospel  as  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to 
every  one  that  believeth. 

§  3.   TJie  Individual  Believer  s  Personal  Certainty  respecting 

Objective  Truth. 
Luther  not  only  asserted  the  practicability  of  this  inner  con- 
scious experience  of  the  certainty  of  peace  with  God  ;  but  he  is 
equally  positive  in  maintaining  the  individual  believer's  personal 
certainty  of  objective  truth.  He  insists  upon  it  that  the  cer- 
tainty of  truth  involves  the  personal  decision  of  the  individual ; 
and  that  it  is  not  only  the  individual's  right  and  interest  but 
his  solemn  duty  to  attain  to  personal  certainty  of  truth.  His 
language  to  every  Christian  is  :  "  Thou  must  be  as  certain  of 
the  matter,  that  it  is  God's  Word,  as  thou  art  certain  that  thou 
livest,  nay  more  certain ;  for  upon  it  alone  thy  conscience  must 
stand.  And  if  all  men  were  to  come,  yea  all  the  angels  and  all 
the  universe  were  to  come  and  decide  a  matter ;  if  thou  canst 
not  apprehend  the  judgment  for  thyself,  canst  not  decide  for  thy- 
self, thou  art  lost.  Thou  must  not  base  thy  judgment  upon  the 
Pope  or  any  other  man  ;  thou  must  be  so  skilled  spiritually, 
that  thou  canst  say  :  '  This  God  says ;  that,  not ;  This  is  right ; 
that,  wrong ;'  else  it  is  not  possible  for  thee  to  stand.  If  thou 
rest  upon  the  Pope  and  Councils,  then  Satan  can  soon  make  a 
breach  and  enter.  What  if  they  should  be  false  ?  What  if  they 
should  have  erred  ?  Then  thou  art  at  once,  overthrown  and 
lost.  Therefore  thou  must  enact  the  part  of  one  that  is  certain. 
Thou  must  be  able  fearlessly  to  say :  '  This  is  God's  Word ; 
upon  this  I  will  venture  body  and  soul,  and  a  hundred  thousand 
necks.'  The  Romanists  say :  '  How  can  we  know  what  is 
God's  Word,  and  what  is  true  or  false  ?  We  must  have  it  from 
the  Pope  and  the  Councils.'  Very  well.  Let  them  determine 
and  say  what  they  will,  I  tell  thee,  thou  canst  not  base  thy  con- 
science upon  it.  Thou  must  decide  for  thyself;  thy  neck,  thine 
all  depends  upon  it"  (Vol.  vi.,  p.  182).  Thus,  did  Luther  insist 
upon  "  the  clearness  of  the  Scriptures  for  the  Christian  man," 
"  in  all  things  pertaining  to  salvation,"  "  in  all  things  necessary 
for  the  Christian  to  know."  And  we  are,  thus,  led  to  examine 
more  particularly,  his  exposition  and  defence  of  the  right  of 
private  judgment,  of  the  sufficiency,  intelligibility  and  efficacy 
of  the  Sacred  Scriptures. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE  RIGHT  OF  PRIVATE  JUDGMENT  AND  THE  SUFFICIENCY,  INTELLI- 
GIBILITY AND  EFFICACY  OF  THE  SACRED  SCRIPTURES. 

In  opposition  to  the  Roman  doctrine  that  we  are  dependent 
on  oral  tradition,  on  the  interpretations  of  the  fathers,  and  the 
decrees  of -Councils  and  Popes;  that  we  cannot  fully  understand 
the  Scriptures  without  such  helps, — Luther  maintains  the  intel- 
ligibility of  the  Sacred  Volume.  He  maintains  that  "  one  pas- 
sage of  Holy  Divine  Scripture  must  be  explained  and  inter- 
preted by  the  others  ;"  that  it  is  self-interpreting  ;  that  facultas 
se  ipsavi  intcrprctandi  must  be  ascribed  to  it ;  and  "  that  in  all 
things  necessary  for  the  Christian  man  to  know,  it  is  found  to 
be  in  itself  clear  and  plain  enough  to  dispel  all  darkness."  He 
would  not  have  us  receive  any  human  apprehensions  of  doctrine, 
whether  it  be  the  so-called  Apostolic  Symbol,  or  Analogia  Fidei, 
or  Ecclesiastical  Doctrine,  as  a  standard  of  interpretation  of  the 
Bible ;  but  only  analogia  Scripturse  Sacrae,  namely,  that  Scrip- 
ture cannot  contradict  Scripture  ;  and  that  to  the  believing  in- 
quirer the  Scriptures  present  a  unity  of  saving  truth  which  is 
the  analogia  fidei  by  which  the  ecclesiastical  doctrine  must  itself 
be  tried.  He  would  neither  say  with  Tertullian  that  obscure 
passages  must  be  interpreted  in  accordance  with  the  views  of 
the  "  Mother  Churches,"  nor  with  Augustine  that  they  must  be 
explained  in  accordance  "  with  the  known  dignity  and  attributes 
of  God,"  but  by  those  doctrines  of  the  Scriptures  which  are 
clearly  and  plainly  elicited  by  the  literal  and  historical  interpre- 
tation. And  though  he  admits,  as  we  shall  see,  that  discre- 
pancies and  inaccuracies  in  historical  details  are  consistent  with 
the  idea  of  inspiration,  yet,  he  believes  the  sacred  writers  as 
divinely  authorized  teachers  to  be  infallible  in  their  written  as 
well  as  in  their  oral  instructions  ;  that,  consequently,  they  do 
not  contradict  themselves  nor  one  another  in  their  doctrinal 
teachings ;  and  that  they  teach  the  same  system  of  doctrine, 
each  as  the  other,  and  each  in  every  part  of  his  own  writings. 
The   certainty  of  this  is  clear  so  far  as  the  central  doctrine  of 

(107) 


I08  SCRIPTURES    SUFFICIENT    AND    INTELLIGIBLE. 

salvation  through  Christ  is  concerned.  "  This  conviction  and 
certainty  will  help  none  but  him  alone  who  has  it ;"  but  to  him 
it  is  perfectly  satisfactory. 

The  creed  and  traditions  of  the  Church  not  being  divinely 
inspired,  he  declares  to  be  of  no  authoritative  use  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  He  acknowledges,  as  we 
shall  see,  that  they  may  be  useful  human  helps,  but  not  divine, 
and  consequently  not  certain  guides.  He  held  that  th.Q  faailtas 
se  ipsmn  interpretandi  of  the  Bible,  makes  it  "  clear  and  plain 
enough  in  all  things  necessary  for  the  Christian  man  to  know." 
He  does  not  mean  that  there  are  no  passages  unintelligible  to 
the  common  reader.  The  contrary  he  knew  must  necessarily 
be  the  case.  When  he  considered  the  vast  number  of  references 
in  the  Bible  to  the  manners  and  customs  of  antiquity,  to  ancient 
geography  and  history,  of  all  of  which  the  unlearned  man  is 
ignorant,  he  could  not  have'  expected  that  he  could  under- 
stand every  passage  of  Scripture.  Nor  does  Luther  mean  that 
there  are  not  obscurities  in  the  references  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures that  have  not  been  removed  even  by  the  greatest  attain- 
ments in  learning ;  and  which  may  never  be  removed.  But  he 
does  mean  that  the  Scriptures  are  "  plain  enough  "  for  salvation 
to  all — to  the  unlearned  and  to  the  learned.  And  as  some  of 
the  doctrines  of  natural  religion,  doctrines  derived  from  general 
revelation,  and  which  can  be  apprehended  as  in  accordance  with 
reason,  are  incomprehensible  to  our  limited  capacities ;  he  fully 
recognizes  the  fact  that  some  of  the  doctrines  of  the  special  rev- 
elation contained  in  the  Bible,  transcend  the  finite  powers  of  all 
men.  But  in  this  case  all,  clergy  and  laity,  learned  and 
unlearned,  are  equally  dependent  on  God.  And  as  the  very 
design  of  special  revelation  is  to  communicate  new  truth,  new 
knowledge,  to  reveal  things  before  unknown,  he  does  maintain 
that  those  doctrines,  or  truths,  or  disclosures  of  the  divine  will, 
upon  which  the  salvation  of  the  soul  depends,  must  be  proposed 
by  the  spirit  of  inspiration  in  a  manner  intelligible  to  the  com- 
mon capacity  of  man.  In  this  he  was  certainly  right,  and  has 
set  us  an  example  of  the  confidence  due  to  the  Bible.  A  revela- 
tion unintelligible  is  no  revelation  at  all.  In  giving  a  revelation, 
God  must  have  designed  to  instruct  men,  to  make  something 
certainly  known  to  men ;  consequently  the  Scriptures,  which  are 
the    divinely   inspired    record    of  that    revelation,  the    divinely 


THE    BIBLE    AND    HUMAN    LEARNING.  IO9 

appointed  means  for  the  incorruptible  preservation,  and  the 
infallible  communication  of  it  to  men,  must  be  intelligible. 
Either,  then,  the  Scriptures  are  intelligible,  or  they  are  not 
divine ;  but  they  are  acknowledged  by  all  Christians  to  be  divine, 
they  must,  therefore,  also  be  recognized  as  intelligible.  That 
this  is  the  character  and  design  of  the  Bible  is  taught  by  the 
spirit  of  inspiration.  "  From  a  child,"  says  Paul  to  Timothy, 
"thou  hast  known  the  Holy  Scriptures,  which  are  able  to  make 
thee  wise  unto  salvation,  through  faith,  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus."  And  this  was  spoken  of  the  Old  Testament  alone. 
How  much  more  reason  have  we  to  believe  that  those  who 
know  both  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  will  find  in  tlicni  the 
wisdom  and poivcr  of  God  unto  salvation.  St.  John,  in  speaking 
of  the  New  Testament  alone,  yea,  perhaps,  of  his  own  gospel 
only,  says:  "These  things  are  written  that  ye  might  believe 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  believing  ye 
might  have  life  through  His  name." 

Nor  does  Luther  mean  that  this  intelligibility  of  the  Scrip- 
tures in  things  pertaining  to  salvation,  should  discourage  theo- 
logical learning  or  supersede  exegetical  researches,  as  Carlstadt 
and  other  fanatics  conceived  that  it  did.  Intelligible  to  the 
young  and  the  ignorant,  the  Bible  contains,  at  the  same  time, 
treasures  of  knowledge  for  the  mature  and  the  learned — knowl- 
edge necessary  to  the  growth  and  perfection  of  the  individual, 
and  to  the  strength  and  triumph  of  the  Church.  The  same 
Spirit  which  reveals  the  truths  of  salvation  excites  also  the  de- 
sire "  to  be  filled  with  that  knowledge  of  His  will  in  all  wisdom 
and  spiritual  understanding."  As  the  divine  in  the  Bible  does 
not  exclude  the  human  element,  so  it  does  not  exclude  it  from 
the  work  of  appropriating  its  truths.  As  the  revelation  is 
made  in  oral  communications  and  in  written  words,  in  articulate 
speech  and  intelligible  language — language  intelligible  to  its 
first  hearers  and  readers,  it  follows  that  the  words  in  this  reve- 
lation must  have  been  used  according  to  the  rules  of  language 
then  prevalent,  the  nsns  loqucndi  of  that  day,  according  to  the 
meaning  or  sense  of  the  words  to  those  to  whom  the  language 
was  vernacular.  Otherwise  the  communication  could  not  have 
been  understood  by  them.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the 
Bible  must  be  explained  in  the  same  way,  and  interpreted  by 
the  same  rules  which  apply  to  any  other  books  written  in  the 


no  SCRIPTURES    SUFFICIENT    AND    INTELLIGIBLE. 

same  languages.  This  was  the  view  of  Luther  and  he  called  it 
the  scnsiim  literalcm.  He  held  however,  as  is  clearly  seen  in 
these  extracts,  that  as  the  content  or  doctrine  of  Scripture  is 
spiritual,  it  can  be  received  and  apprehended  only  by  the  spirit- 
ually disposed.  So  in  regard  to  the  sufficiency  and  efficacy 
of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  he  clearly  teaches  that  they  were  suf- 
ficient, that  is,  that  we  need  no  oral  or  uninspired  written  tradi- 
tions as  auxiliaries  in  the  attainment  of  saving  knowledge; 
and  that  they  are  efficacious,  that  is,  that  they  are  a  wise  and 
suitable  means  to  accomplish  the  end  for  which  they  are  given ; 
and  that  any  human  addition  to  them  is  not  only  superfluous, 
but  absurd  and  wicked.  On  this  ground  he  opposes  the  fanatic 
as  well  as  the  papist.  The  fanatical  parties  of  his  day  con- 
tended that  an  internal  light  in  the  soul  of  man — by  which  they 
did  not  however,  mean  the  immediate  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit — must  be  superadded  to  the  Scriptures  in  order  to  enable 
us  to  understand  a  divine  revelation.  Luther  also  acknowl- 
edged an  inner  revelation — an  inner  light  without  which  the 
outer  revelations  cannot  be  understood.  But  this  was  the  ac- 
companying influence  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  he  recognized 
this  subjective  revelation  as  only  illuminating  the  objective. 
He  only  meant  that  "  the  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things 
of  the  Spirit,  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned ;"  in  other 
words  that  the  contents  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  must  be  at- 
tended by  the  superadded  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  order  to 
make  them  capable  of  illuminating  us.  But  he  held  that  this 
immediate  influence  of  the  .Spirit  accompanies  the  gospel. 
Possessed  of  these  attributes  he  regards  the  Scriptures  as  hav- 
ing both  normative  and  judicial  authority — normative  author- 
ity, that  is,  authority  to  bind  us  to  believe  and  do  what  they 
teach  and  require;  judicial  authority,  that  is,  that  they  must  be 
to  us  the  final  appeal  in  all  matters  of  faith  and  practice. 

The  reader  will  be  pleased  with  a  somewhat  detailed  exhibi- 
tion of  Luther's  utterances  on  these  points: 

§  I.    TJic  Individiial  must,  against  every  other  Authority,  Decide 

for  Himself  According  to  God's  Word. 

In  his  exposition  of  2  Pet.  i.  19,  Luther  says:  "Here  Peter 

enters  fully  into  the  matter,  and  speaks  to   this  effect:  'Every 

thing  is  to  be  done  in  my  preaching  to  the  effect  that  your  heart 


THE    ONLY    LIGHT    IN    THE    MIDST    OF    DARKNESS.  I  I  I 

can  Stand  upon  it,  and  not  permit  itself  to  be  torn  away  from  it ; 
so  that  botli  you  and  I  may  be  sure  that  zve  have  God's  Word. 
For  it  is  a  serious  thing  to  deal  with  the  gospel,  so  that  we  may 
apprehend  it  and  preserve  it  pure  and  unadulterated  without 
addition  or  false  doctrine.'  Hence  Peter  proceeds  to  write 
against  human  doctrine.  Why  does  he  say  we  have  a  more 
sure  word  of  prophecy?  Answer:  I  hold,  indeed,  that  we  shall 
never  in  the  future  have  such  prophets  as  the  Jews  had  in  the 
Old  Testament.  But  a  prophet  is,  indeed,  in  the  strict  sense, 
one  who  preaches  Christ.  Therefore,  though  the  prophets  in 
the  Old  Testament  prophesied  of  future  things,  yet  in  the  strict 
sense  they  came,  and  were  sent  of  God  to  proclaim  CHRIST. 
Those,  therefore,  who  believe  in  Christ  are  all  prophets  ;  for 
they  have  the  principal  things  which  the  prophets  had,  though 
they  do  not  all  have  the  gift  of  prophecy.  For  we  are  through 
faith  the  brethren,  kings  and  priests  of  Christ,  and,  therefore, 
all  are  prophets  through  Christ.  For  we  can  all  say  what  be- 
longs to  salvation,  and  God's  honor  and  glory,  the  Christian 
life ;  and  in  addition  to  this,  we  can  speak  of  future  things  as 
much  as  is  necessary  to  knoiv  ;  such  as  that  the  day  of  judgment 
will  come,  that  we  will  rise  from  the  dead.  For  this  purpose 
we  understand  the  wJiole  of  Scripture.  Of  this  Paul  speaks 
(i  Cor.  xiv.  31),  when  he  says:  '  Ye  may  all  prophesy  one  by 
one.'  " 

"  Thus  then  Peter  says,  ye  have  such  a  prophetic  Word  that 
is  sure  in  itself;  see  to  it  that  it  be  sure  to  you.  Whereunto 
ye  do  well  to  take  heed.  As  if  he  would  say,  it  is  necessary 
that  ye  cling  fast  to  it ;  for  in  dealing  with  the  gospel  your  case 
is  like  that  of  a  man  who  is  captive  in  a  house  at  midnight  in 
pitch  darkness  ;  in  whose  case  it  would  be  necessary  to  strike  a 
light,  until  the  day  should  dawn  that  he  might  see.  So  also  the 
gospel  is,  in  the  strict  sense,  in  the  midst  of  night  and  darkness. 
For  all  the  reason  of  men  is  pure  error  and  blindness ;  and  the 
world  is  none  other  than  a  kingdom  of  darkness.  In  this  night 
God  has  struck  a  light,  namely,  the  gospel,  by  which  we  can  see 
and  walk  as  long  as  we  are  on  earth,  until  the  morning  dawn 
and  the  day  break  forth.  Therefore  this  text  is  strong  against 
human  doctrine.  For  if  the  Word  of  God  is  thus  a  light  in  a 
dark  place,  it  follows  that  all  others  must  be  darkness.  For 
if  there  were  any  other  light  than  the  Word  how  could  Peter 


112  SCRIPTURES    SUFFICIENT    AND    INTELLIGIBLE. 

say:  Knowing,  first,  that  no  prophecy  of  the  Scripture  is  of  any 
private  interpretation.  For  the  prophecy  came  not  in  the  old 
time  by  the  will  of  man,  but  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they 
were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"  Here  Peter  attacks  the  false  teachers.  '  Ye  know,'  says  he, 
'  that  ye  have  the  Word  of  God ;  plant  yourselves  firmly  upon 
it ;  and  permit  not  yourselves  to  be  led  astray  by  other  and 
false  teachers,  though  they  profess  that  they  have  also  the  Holy 
Spirit.  For  this  ye  shall  know,  in  the  first  place,  that  no  pro- 
phecy is  of  private  interpretation.  Be  guided  by  this,  and  do 
not  think  \X\-a.t  you  can  interpret  the  Scriptures  by  your  own  reason 
and  skill! 

"  With  this  he  overthrows  and  overwhelms  all  the  interpreta- 
tions of  Scripture  by  the  fathers,  and  forbids  that  we  should 
build  upon  such  interpretation.  If  it  be  Jerome  or  Augustine, 
or  any  other  of  the  fathers  who  has  himself  interpreted,  we  do 
not  want  him.  Peter  has  commanded  :  Thou  shalt  not  thyself 
interpret ;  the  Holy  Ghost  himself  shall  interpret,  or  it  shall 
remain  uninterpreted.  If  now  one  of  the  fathers  can  show  that 
he  has  his  interpretation  out  of  the  Scripture  which  has  here 
certified  that  it  shall  be  interpreted  in  that  way,  it  is  right ;  if 
not,  we  will  not  believe  him. 

"  Here  Peter  attacks  the  grandest  and  the  best  teachers. 
Therefore  we  are  to  be  sure,  that  no  man  is  to  be  believed, 
though  he  present  us  the  Scriptures,  if  he  ///;;wr/y  construes  and 

interprets  them Now  follows  a  faithful  exhortation,  which 

Christ,  Paul  and  all  Apostles  have  given  also,  that  we  must  take 
care  and  guard  against  false  preachers.  This,  especially,  it  is 
necessary  for  us  to  apprehend,  that  we  are  not  to  permit  our- 
selves to  be  deprived  of  the  right  and  pozver — which  all  Christians 
have — to  judge  and  decide  concerning  all  doctrines ;  and  not  let 
it  come  to  this,  that  we  are,  first,  to  wait  until  Councils  have  de- 
cided what  we  are  to  believe,  and  then  follow  the  same.  This 
we  will  now  see  in  the  second  chapter :  '  But  there  were  false 
prophets  also  among  the  people,  even  as  there  shall  be  false 
teachers  among  you,  who  privily  bring  in  damnable  heresies,' 
etc.  This  is  what  Peter  wishes  to  say :  '  All  prophecy  is  to 
proceed  from  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  it  has  been  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world,  that  nothing  shall  be  preached  but  God's  Word. 
Yet  it  has  always  happened  that  alongside  of  the  true  prophets 


THE   WORD    OF    GOD    THE    ONLY    MEANS    OF    CONVERSION.      II3 

and  God's  Word,  there  were  false  teachers ;  and  it  always  will 
be  so Therefore,  we  are  inexcusable,  if  we  believe  erron- 
eously, and  follow  false  teachers.  It  will  not  help  us  that  we 
were  ignorant  of  it ;  for  we  were  forewarned.  For  this  God  has 
commanded  us  tJiat  each  07ic  of  us  sliall  judge  ivliat  this  or 
that  one  preaches,  and  give  himself  account  of  it.  If  we  do  not, 
we  are  lost.  Therefore,  the  salvation  of  each  one  depends  upon 
his  capability  of  knozvi)ig  zvhat  is  God's  Word,  and  zuhat  are 
false  doctrines y 

"Therefore,  Councils  here  or  Councils  there,  if  they  are 
human  doctrines  they  must  pass  for  nothing  more.  I  believe 
Christ,  yea  Paul,  His  Apostle,  more  than  all  Councils,  should 
they  be  as  numerous  as  the  sand  of  the  sea  and  the  stars  of 
heaven.  Paul  would  have  all  accursed  if  they  did  not  preach 
God's  Word."  "  Do  you  know  that  it  is  God's  counsel,  that 
God's  Word  is  to  be  given  to  the  people  to  hear ;  that  we  must 
not  attempt  by  any  other  means  to  convert  any  person  from  a 
bad  to  a  good  life  ?  This  Word,  not  the  zvord  of  man,  must  do 
it.  What  necessity  would  there  be  of  God's  Word,  if  human 
doctrine  could  help?  And  what  kind  of  a  God  would  He  be,  if 
His  zvord  zvere  not  sufficient,  if  it  needed  additions  from  men  T' 
"  But  the  Word  of  God  is  so  sensitive  that  it  will  not  bear  any 
addition.     It  zvi/l  be  alo7ie  or  not  at  all"  (Vol.  xviii.,  p.  695). 

We  should  prefer  the  fountain  to  the  stream.  "  St.  Bernhard 
says:  'I  would  rather  drink  from  the  fountain  than  from  the 
stream.  For  even  as  all  men  do  easily  forget  the  stream  if  they 
may  drink  from  the  fountain,  though  the  stream  may  be  useful 
in  leading  them  to  the  fountain  ;  so  must  the  Scriptures  remain 
master  and  judge;  for  if  we  follow  the  streams  too  much,  they 
will  lead  us  too  far  from  the  fountain.' " 

We  must  not  zvait  for  the  decisions  of  others.  "  In  the  mean- 
time while  we  are  culling  from  the  fathers  and  the  Councils  ; 
they,  what  suits  them  ;  and  we,  what  is  agreeable  to  us  ;  and 
cannot  agree  because  the  fathers  are  not  agreed  among  them- 
selves, and  the  Councils  as  little  with  one  another; — beloved, 
who  shall  preach  to  those  poor  souls,  in  the  meantime,  who 
know  nothing  of  such  culling  and  disputing?  Is  this  feeding 
the  sheep  of  Christ?  when  we  ourselves  do  not  know  whether 
it  is  grass  or  poison,  hay  or  dung?  Alas,  the  Church  of  Christ 
would  be  unattended  in  such  a  case!  No!  we  must  proceed 
8 


I  14  SCRIPTURES    SUFFICIENT    AND    INTELLIGIBLE. 

otherwise  than  we  pretend,  or  there  must  have  been  no  Church 
since  the  days  of  the  Apostles.  But  this  is  not  possible  ;  it  is 
established :  '  /  believe  in  the  Holy  Christian  Church  /'  and  '  /  am 
ivith  you  ez>en  7/nto  the  end  of  the  zvorld!  These  words  must  not 
fail.  That  man  must  be  called  ego  Veritas,  and  in  comparison 
with  him  the  fathers  and  Councils  must  be  called  liomo 
mendax,  should  there  be  any  conflict  in  their  words  "  (Leipzig  Ed. 
Vol.  xxi.  p.,  257).  "Blessed  God!  if  the  Christian  faith  were 
suspended  upon  men  and  grounded  upon  the  word  of  men, 
what  need  would  there  be  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  or  for  what 
purpose  has  God  given  them  ?  So  let  us  put  them  under  the 
bench,  and  put  in  their  stead  the  Councils  and  Fathers.  Or,  if 
the  fatliers  were  not  men,  how  would  we  men  be  saved?  If  tliey 
were  men,  tlien  they  must  occasionally  have  thought  and  spoken 
and  acted  as  zve  think  and  act.  And,  consequently,  must,  like  as 
we  do,  say  the  blessed  prayer :  ^Forgive  us  our  si?is,'  etc.,  espe- 
cially since  they  have  no  such  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  the 
Apostles  had,  but  must  be  the  disciples  of  the  Apostles.  If  the 
Holy  Ghost  had  been  so  foolish  as  to  have  supposed  or  trusted 
that  the  Councils  and  fathers  would  have  done  all  well,  and 
would  not  have  failed;  would  there  have  been  any  necessity  for 
Him  (i  Cor.  iii.  10)  to  ivarn  the  church  against  them  ;  to  tell  us  to 
prove  all  things  ;  and  to  take  heed  liozv  they  build  tJiereon,  hay, 
wood,  stubble,  etc  ?  By  this  he  does — not  secretly  and  timidly, 
but  openly  and  powerfully — prophesy  that  tJiere  would  be  in  the 
Church,  zvood,  hay,  and  straw-bidlders,  that  is,  teachers,  zvho  yet 
zvould  remain  upon  the  foundation,  and  whose  works  would  be 
burned,  and  who  would  suffer  loss  and  yet  themselves  be  saved. 
Tins  coidd  not  be  spoken  of  heretics,  for  they  lay  another  founda- 
tion" (Leip.  Ed.,  Vol.  xxi.,  p.  257). 

§  2.  The  Attainment  of  this  certainty  through  the  Scriptures,  is 
practicable  for  every  Christian  man;  that  is,  the  Scriptures  are 
sufficient. 

"  We  must,  then,  according  to  the  judgment  of  Paul,  be  able 
to  distinguish  bctzvecn  gold  and  zvood,  silver  and  hay,  precious 

stones  and  stubble There  are  also  no  Councils  or  fathers, 

in  zvhom  zve  coidd  find  or  learn  the  wJiole  Christian  doctrine 

Put  the  whole  of  them  together,  fathers  and  Councils,  and  you 
cannot  cull  from  them  the  whole  doctrine  of  the  Christian  faith. 


THE  FULL  AND  CERTAIN  SOURCE  OF  TRUTH.       I  I  5 

And  if  the  Sacred  Scriptures  had  not  preserved  the  truth,  it  zvoida 
not  have  continued  long,  for  aught  that  Councils  and  fathers 
could  do.  And,  in  truth,  whence  have  the  fathers  and  Councils 
whatever  of  truth  they  do  teach  and  discuss  ?  Do  you  think 
that  they  first  discovered  it  in  their  time,  or  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  ever  inspired  them  with  new  truth  ?  By  zvhat  means 
then  zcas  the  Church  preso'ved  before  tlie  Councils  and  the  fathers? 
Or  were  there  no  Christians  before  the  Councils  and  fatJicrs  arose?"" 
(p.  259).  "  If  now  I  have  not  the  Council  or  do  not  understand 
it  aright,  /  liave  that  Scripture  and  understand  it  aright  according 
to  which  the  Council  is  bound  also  to  act,  and  whicJi  is  more  certain 

to  nie  than  all  Councils We  must   then   have   something 

more,  and  something  more  certain,  and  that  is  the  Holy  Scripture  " 
(p.  285).  "We  have  four  principal  Councils,  and  the  reasons  why 
they  were  held.  The  first,  at  Nice,  vindicated  the  divinity  of 
Christ  against  Arius.  The  second,  at  Constantinople,  vindicated 
the  divinity  of  the  Holy  Ghost  against  Macedonius.  The  third, 
at  Ephesus,  vindicated  the  one  person  of  Christ  against  Nes- 
torius.  The  fourth,  at  Chalcedon,  vindicated  the  two  natures  in 
Christ  against  Eutychus.  But  they  by  this  established  no  new 
article  of  faith.  For  these  four  articles  are  much  more  richly 
and  powerfully  exhibited  in  St.  John's  gospel,  if  even  the  other 
evangelists  and  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter  had  written  nothing  con- 
cerning them,  who  yet,  together  with  all  the  prophets,  all  pow- 
erfully teach  and  testify  the  same  things "  (p.  286).  "  How 
could  I  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  I  must  receive  the  expres- 
sion of  St.  Augustine  as  an  article  of  faith,  when  he  himself 
does  not  wish  to  have  his  expressions  held  as  articles  of  faith, 
and  also  will  not  endure  the  expressions  of  his  predecessors  as 
articles  of  faith?"  (p.  292). 

"In  the  second  place,  there  is  an  outward  judgment  with 
which  we  are  not  only  certain  for  ourselves,  but  can  also  make 
others  certain,  and,  for  the  salvation  of  others,  try  the  spirits 
and  doctrines.  This  judgment  belongs,  properly,  to  the  minis- 
terial office  and  to  teachers,  and  we  use  this  judgment  when 
we  instruct  and  strengthen  the  weak  and  stop  the  mouths 
of  the  gainsayers.  We  say,  therefore,  that  the  Scriptures  are 
to  be  the  jiidge  to  try  all  spirits  in  the  Church.  For  this  all 
Christians  must  know,  and  above  all  things  hold  as  cer- 
tain, that  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  a  spiritual  light  much  clearer 


Il6  SCRIPTURES    SUFFICIENT   AND    INTELLIGIBLE. 

than  the  sim,  especially  hi  all  things  necessary  for  a  Christian  to 

knozu,  and.  zuhich  are  conducive  to  salvation It  is  necessary 

in  all  governments,  even  in  the  world,  that  all  matters  and  errors 
must  be  determined  by  law.  But  hozu  could  they  be  decided  if 
the  law  were  uncertain  ?  For  if  the  law  were  uncertain  and  ob- 
scure, we  could  not  only  decide  nothing,  but  could  hardly  be 
certain  what  was  honorable  or  dishonorable  conduct  in  life. 
Hence  the  law,  which  is  the  rule  and  criterion  of  all  things,  must 
be  in  the  highest  degree  certain;  but  if  God  has  given  this  cer- 
tainty in  worldly  things,  must  He  not  have  given  His  Christians  a 
criterion,  and  much  more  certain  lights,  and  clearer  laws  and  doc- 
trines, by  which  they  may  know  zuhat  is  Christian  righteousness 
and  piety,  or  notT'  (2  Pet.  i.  19;  p.  38).  "I,  therefore,  have 
often  said,  and  say  it  yet,  that  in  Christendom  nothing  should  be 
preached  but  the  bare  Word  of  God.  To  this  agrees  the  gospel 
in  that  it  does  not  find  the  Lord  among  acquaintances  and 
friends.  Therefore  we  must  not  say :  We  are  to  believe  what 
the  Councils  have  determined,  or  what  Jerome,  Augustine  and 
other  holy  fathers  have  written.  But  we  must  point  to  a  place 
where  Christ  is  to  be  found,  and  to  none  other  than  that  which 
He  has  Himself  indicated,  when  He  says,  He  must  be  in  that 
which  is  His  Father's,  that  is,  no  man  can  find  Him  anyzvhere 
except  in  God's  Word.  Therefore  we  must  receive  that  which 
the  holy  fathers  teach,  in  such  a  way,  as  zvith  the  conscience  to 
trust  upon  and  seek  comfoj^t  only  in  the  Scriptuj'e.  And  if  they 
say  to  you,  why  must  we  not  believe  the  holy  fathers  ?  you 
must  answer :  Christ  is  not  to  be  found  among  acquaintances 
and  friends"  (Vol.  xiii.,  p.  325).  "  This  is  the  consolation  which 
we  have  from  the  gospel,  that  zue  know  that  there  is  no  other  con- 
solation to  be  found  except  in  the  Scriptures  and  Word  of  God. 
Therefore  did  God  have  it  written,  Paul  says  (Rom.  xv.  4), 
namely,  that  it  was  written  for  our  learning  that  we  through 
patience  and  comfort  of  the  Scriptures  might  have  hope" 
(p.  326). 

"  In  this  text  there  are  two  parts  which  are  easily  to  be  ob- 
served :  freedom  to  believe  and  authority  to  judge.  You  know 
that  the  soul-murderers  of  this  day  tell  us  that  what  Councils 
and  the  high  doctors  have  decided  and  determined,  that  we 
must  receive  without  judging  whether  it  be  right  or  wrong. 
With  this  they  are  so  secure,  that  they  now  decide,  as  we  plainly 


PRIVATE   JUDGMENT   AND    PURITY    OF    THE    CHURCH.  11/ 

see,  that  we  must  receive  what  they  say  on  pain  of  excommuni- 
cation. Here  you  must  take  a  spear  and  pierce  this  shield;  yea, 
their  conclusion  must  be  to  you  as  a  spider's  web ;  and  you  are 
to  take  the  spear  of  which  they  had  deprived  us,  and  turn  the 
point  upon  them.  For  note  this  well,  that  it  is  the  sheep  that  are 
to  Judge  luhat  is  proposed  to  them,  and  that  we  are  to  say  :  We 
have  Christ  for  our  Lord,  and  His  Word,  in  spite  of  all  devils 
and  men.  With  this  we  would  comprehend  and  judge  whether 
the  Pope,  bishops  and  their  associates  do  right  or  not.  For  He 
says  here,  The  sheep  hear  and  know  what  is  the  true  voice,  or  not. 
So  let  us  proceed.  If  they  have  determined  anything,  we  will 
see  whether  it  is  right,  and  do  according  to  that  jndgmeiit  xvhich 
is  allowed  to  every  man  for  himself,  and  which  is  not  of  human, 
but  of  divine  authority.  For  this  also  the  natural  sheep  do;  they 
flee  from  a  stranger,  and  obey  the  voice  of  their  shepherd.  Thus 
does  the  gospel  upturn  all  Councils  and  all  papistical  law ;  so 
that  we  are  to  receive  nothing  without  judging,  and  have  author- 
ity also  to  judge,  and  that  this  judgment  must  stand The 

other  part  is  that  we  must  force  no  man  to  faith,  for  the  sheep 
follow  Him  whom  they  know,  and  flee  from  strangers.  Now 
Christ  desires  that  we  should  force  no  man,  but  let  him  follow 
from  a  willing  mind,  heart  and  desire,  not  from  fear,  shame  or 
punishment.  We  are  to  let  the  Word  go  out  and  accomplish  all 
this.  If  then  their  hearts  are  caught,  they  will  come  of  them- 
selves. Faith  does  not  come  from  the  heart,  unless  it  has  the  Word 
of  God.  Wherefore  observe  that  we  must  let  the  pure  Word  of 
God  alone  operate,  and  then  let  those  who  have  received  it, 
follow  freely"  (p.  732). 

§  3.  This  Personal  Certainty  and  Decision  of  the  Individual  ac- 
cording to  the  Scriptures,  is  indispensable  to  the  Purity  of  the 
Church. 

"  This  I  have  said  against  those  strenuous  interpreters  of 
Scripture,  who,  whenever  an  interpretation  is  discovered  dif- 
ferent from  those  thus  far  in  use,  immediately  call  it  a  slandering 
of  the  Church.  JVe  praise  her  industry,  indeed,  but  we  also  be- 
lieve that  ti'c  are  called  to  cultivate  a  part  of  the  field  of  the  Lord, 
and  that  we  are  not  here  only  to  eat  of  its  fndts,  as  it  is  written 
(Lev.  21.  10).  When  the  nezv  cometh,  the  old  is  put  aside.  Those  • 
who  have  gone  before  us,  did  ?iot  accomplisJi  everything.     There 


Il8  SCRIPTURES    SUFFICENT    AND    INTELLIGIBLE 

is  also  a  pai't  left  for  us  to  do.  If  it  were  not  so,  we  could  say : 
If  it  is  enough  that  they  have  taught,  wherefore  is  it  not  also  enough 
that  they  have  led  a  good  life  ?  If  one  kind  of  words  is  suffici£nt 
why  is  not  one  kind  of  tvorks  ?  According  to  this  idea,  we  must 
satisfy  ourselves,  as  with  their  zvords,  so  with  their  works,  and  no 
man  would  be  permitted  to  teach  or  do  otherwise  than  St.  Je- 
rome, etc.,  taught  and  did"  (Vol.  v.,  p.  ii6). 

"  Would  to  God  that  mine  and  the  interpretations  of  all  teachers 
were  destroyed,  and  that  each  Christian  himself  would  take  the 
naked  Scriptures  and  the  bare  Word  of  God  before  him.  Thou 
seest,  indeed,  out  of  this  my  talk,  how  infinitely  unlike  God's 
words  are  to  all  words  of  men  !  How  impossible  it  is  for  any 
man  sufficiently  to  grasp  a  single  word  of  God  and  expound  it 
with  all  his  words  !  It  is  an  endless  Word,  and  is  to  be  appre- 
hended and  contemplated  with  a  quiet  and  contemplative  spirit. 
Whoever  could  come  to  it  zuithout  glossing,  to  him  neither  mine 
nor  all  men's  glossing  zuould  be  necessary ;  nay,  it  would  be  a 
hindrance.  Therefore,  enter,  beloved  Christians,  and  let  mine 
and  the  commentaries  of  all  teachers  be  to  us  a  scaffolding  to  the 
true  building,  that  we  may  appreJiend  and  taste  the  naked,  bare 
Word  of  God,  and  remain  there,  for  there  alone  God  dwelleth  in 
Zio?i"  (Vol.  xxii.,  Appendix,  p.  80). 

Melanchthon  says  of  Luther  :  "  It  is  proper  to  observe  of 
Luther,  that  afterzvards  as  zvell  as  at  the  beginning,  he  did  not 
act  from  pride  or  self-confidence,  but  remained  in  his  office,  and 
that  he  used  no  other  authority  than  that  of  doctrine  and  preach- 
ing  He  gives  the  reader  instruction  in  the  art  and  pecu- 
liarity of  languages,  in  order  that  all  pious  hearts  might  draw 
the  true  testimony  and  ground  of  their  doctrine  from  the  fountain 
itself.  For  Luther  desired  not  that  his  writings  should  delay 
and  hinder  people,  but  shoidd  bring  them  to  the  fountain  itself. 
He  desired  that  we  should  hear  the  Jl'ord  itself  and  that  tJirougJi 
the  same  true  faith  and  zvorship  migJit  be  kindled  in  many  people ; 
so  that  God  might  be  rightly  praised  and  honored,  and  that 
there  might  be  many  children  and  heirs  of  eternal  life"  (Vol. 
xxi.,p.  731-4). 

I  know  the  reader  will  be  gratified  by  my  adding  still  other 
extracts  from  Luther  on  this  important  subject : 

"  St.  Augustine  declares  that  in  his  day  already,  the  Church 
was   so  laden  with  the  determinations  of  bishops  that  the  old 


THE   FOUNTAIN    AND    THE   STREAMS.  II9 

burdens  of  the  Jews  were  easier  to  be  borne ;  and  he  says  in 
the  introduction  to  his  work  Librorum  Trinitate, '  Beloved,  do  not 
folloiv  my  writing  like  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  what  thou  findest 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  that  thou  didst  not  believe  before,  that 
believe  without  a  doubt ;  but,  in  my  writing,  thou  shalt  regard 
nothing  as  certain  that  zuas  before  jnicertain,  unless  it  is  proved 
by  me  that  it  is  certain.  As  I  read  other  books,  so  I  would 
have  mine  read.'  To  St.  Jerome,  who  was  very  angry  because 
Augustine  had  criticized  a  passage  in  his  commentary  on  Gala- 
tians,  he  says  :  '  I  do  not  suppose,  dear  brother,  that  you  would 
have  your  books  held  as  those  of  the  Apostles  and  prophets !' 
If  any  man  had  just  cause  to  write  to  me  and  beg  of  me,  that  I 
should  not  regard  my  books  equal  to  those  of  the  Apostles  and 
prophets,  I  would  die  of  shame.  But  this  is  what  we  are  now 
at,  to  wit,  that  Augustine  had  zvell  observed  that  the  fathers  are 
also  occasionally  men,  and  have  not  conquered  the  seventh  chapter 
of  Romans  ;  and  therefore  he  will  neither  tmst  his  ancestors — the 
very  learned  fathers — nor  even  Jmnself,  but  will  have  the  Scriptures 
only  as  master  and  judge.  In  like  manner  as  St.  Bernard,  he 
woidd  rather  drink  from  the  fountain  than  from  the  rivulet.  This 
he  could  not  have  said,  if  he  had  regarded  the  books  of  the 
fathers  as  he  did  the  Holy  Scripture.  And  if  he  had  found  no 
defect  in  them,  he  xvould  have  said,  it  is  Just  the  same  zuhethcr  I 
drink  from  the  Scriptures  or  the  fathers.  But  this  he  does  not,  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  lets   the  streandets  flozu,  and  drinks  from  the 

fountain What  shall   w^e    do    then?     Shall  we  turn   the 

Church  back  to  the  doctrine  of  the  fathers  and  Councils  ?  Then 
St.  Augustine  stands  in  our  way,  and  will  have  us  trust  neither 
fathers,  bishops,  nor  Councils,  however  holy  and  learned  they 
may  be,  nor  will  he  have  even  himself  relied  upon,  but  points 
us  to  the  Scriptures,  with  the  idea  that  when  we  are  not  so 
directed,  all  is  uncertain,  lost  and  vain"  (Leip.,  Vol.  xxi.,  p.  206). 
"  God  has  so  ordered  it,  in  order  that  the  Church  should  not 
be  overloaded  with  too  many  books.  For  this  reason  I  am  an 
enemy  of  my  own  books,  and  often  wish  that  they  may  perish  ; 
because  I  am  concerned  lest  they  should  attract  the  reader,  hinder 
and  keep  him  from  reading  the  Scripture  himself,  which  alone  is 
the  fountain  and  source  of  all  wisdom.  And  I  am  often  terri- 
fied by  the  example  of  former  centuries  under  the  papacy.  For 
after  they  fell  upon  other  books   and  commentaries,  they  not 


I20  SCRIPTURES    SUFFICIENT    AND    INTELLIGIBLE. 

only  lost  much  time,  but  much  light.  Therefore,  there  must  be 
a  limit  to  books,  among  which  we  arc  to  read  and  praise  only 
those  wJiicJi  lead  to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  and  we  are  not  to 
receive,  in  the  fathers  themselves,  what  does  not  agree  with  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  For  this  alone  must  remain  the  judge  and 
mistress  of  all  books  "  (Vol.  ii.,  234).  "  But  mark  here  what 
kind  of  a  book,  an  Apostle  here  presents  to  Christians  to 
study  and  read,  namely,  the  Holy  Scriptures  alone,  and  says 
that  our  doctrine  is  found  in  it.  If  then  our  doctrine  is  found 
in  the  Scripture,  zee  are  certainly  not  to  seek  it  anyzvhere  else  ;  all 

Christians  should  daily  use  this  book Now  let  us  return 

to  Paul,  who  tells  us  here  what  we  shall  read,  and  where  we  are 
to  find  our  doctrine.  If  any  other  book  was  to  be  read,  he 
would  have  pointed  it  out.  And  further  he  shows,  in  addition, 
what  fruits  such  reading  produces,  and  says,  through  patience 
and  comfort  of  the  Scripture  we  might  have  hope.  Here  let  all 
doctrines  present  themselves,  bring  forward  all  books,  and  see 
whether  they  are  able  to  con  fort  the  soul  even  in  the  least  tempta- 
tion. It  is  not  possible  to  comfort  the  soul,  unless  it  have  God's 
Word.  But  where  is  God's  Word  in  any  books,  except  the  Bible  ? 
Why  then  do  we  read  other  books  and  let  this  lie  ?  Other 
books  may  torment  and  kill  us,  but  comfort  no  book  can  give, 
but  the  Holy  Scripture.  This  title,  zvhich  Paid  gives  it,  it  alone 
has,  that  it  is  a  Book  of  Consolation"  (Vol.  xiii.,  p.  35).  "  Therefore, 
we  must  again  bring  forth  our  book  or  Bible  which  has  endured 
for  fifteen  hundred  years,  since  the  conception  and  birth  of 
Christ,  and  will  remain  to  the  last  day,  although  it  be  attacked 
by  heretics  and  the  devil  in  our  hearts,  who  knows  the  art  so 
well,  that  when  he  comes  to  measure  and  work  with  men,  there 
is  no  article  so  small  that  he  cannot  hurl  his  darts  at  it.  There- 
fore this  article  must  ever  remain  in  conflict  as  heretofore,  and 
yet  gain  the  victory  with  the  faithful,  against  the  wisdom  of 
the  world  and  the  devil.  Therefore  we  will  stick  to  the  Word 
and  faitli  against  all  such  temptations  and  cavils  "  (Vol.  xxii.,  p. 
128)."     Therefore  God  has  so  ordered  things  that  this  article  is 

preserved  and   established  by  His  Word  alone Tnasmuch 

as  the  human  heart  can  trust  and  bidld  upon  notJnng  but  God, 
and  the  Scripture  condemns  all  confidence  in  men,  and  testifies  that 
they  err  and  fail.  For  all  men,  says  the  one  hundred  and  six- 
teenth Psalm,  are  liars"  (p.  127).  "Behold,  this  is  the  art  zvhich  we 


LENGTH    OF    TIME    NO    JUSTIFICATION    OF    ERROR.  121 

are  to  leant  here  and  not  in  the  schools ;  not  of  ine7i,  but  from 
above,  through  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  is,  in  this  matter,  the  only- 
teacher  and  doctor.  And  if  any  would  oppose,  we  are  not  to 
dispute  much,  nor  ourselves  try  to  judge,  but  only  point  hither 
and  say :  Here  v/e  have  a  little  book  v/liich  is  called  the  Credo, 
in  which  this  article  is  found,  that  is,  the  Bible,  zvhieh  has  so  long 
existed  and  still  remains  ;  by  that  I  zvill  hold ;  Jipon  this  I  am  bap- 
tized;  upon  this  I  will  live  and  die — further,  I  will  not  permit 
myself  to  be  instructed"  (Vol.  xxii.,  p.  127). 

§  4.  The  Sacred  Scriptures  are  so  much  more  Certain  and  Clear 
than  any  other  Writings  or  Teachings,  that  the  Christian  Man 
must  go  immediately  to  them  for  Light  in  Things  pertaining  to 
Salvation,  and  must  make  them  his  only  Rule  of  Faith  and 
Practice. 

As  the  spirit  and  utterances  of  Luther  on  this  important  sub- 
ject are  the  first,  and  incomparably  the  best,  we  can  not  refrain 
from  quoting  his  language.  "They  say  I  originate  new  things, 
and  that  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  others  have  so  long  erred. 
This  the  old  prophets  had  to  hear.  If  length  of  time  were  a 
sufficient  justification,  the  Jews  would  have  had  the  very  best 
cause  against  Christ,  whose  doctrine  was  different  from  what 
they  had  heard  for  a  thousand  years.  The  heathen  would  also 
have  properly  rejected  the  apostles,  for  their  ancestors  had  be- 
lieved very  differently  for  more  than  three  thousand  years. 
There  have  been  murderers,  adulterers  and  thieves  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  world,  and  will  be  unto  the  end — must  these 
crimes  be  right  therefore?  I  do  not  preach  new  things.  I  say 
that  all  Christian  things  have  been  lost  by  those  zvho  should  have 
preserved  thon,  namely,  the  bishops  and  the  learned.  At  the 
same  time  there  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  the  truth  has  hither- 
to been  preserved  in  some  hearts,  even  if  they  should  have  been  only 
children  in  their  cradles.  There  remained  also  the  spiritual  under- 
standing of  the  law  in  the  Old  Testament  xvith  some  of  the  lozuly, 
but  it  was  lost  by  the  high  priests  and  the  learned  zuho  should  have 
preserved  it.  Thus  also  Jeremiah  iv.  5  says,  that  he  found  less 
understanding  and  right  among  the  rulers  than  among  the  laity 
and  the  common  people.  Thus  it  is  now  that  poor  peasants  and 
children  better  understand  Christ  than  popes,  bishops  and  doctors ; 
and  everything  is  reversed.     But  if  they  will  not  otherwise,  then 


122  SCRIPTURES    SUFFICIENT    AND    INTELLIGIBLE. 

let  them  regard  me  a  heathen.  What  would  they  answer,  or 
how  would  they  do,  if  the  Turk  were  to  inquire  for  the  ground 
of  our  faith,  who  does  not  care  how  many,  or  how  long,  or  how 
great  people  believed  so  and  so  ?  We  would  certainly  have  to 
be  silent,  and  point  him  to  the  Sacred  Scriptures  for  the  ground 
of  our  faith.  It  certainly  would  be  shameful  and  ridiculous  if 
we  should  say  to  him,  See  here  :  so  many  priests,  bishops,  kings, 
princes,  countries  and  people,  have  held  so  and  so.  Thus  men 
act  toward  me  now.  Let  us  see  how  stands  or  lies  our  ground 
and  our  best  provision.  Let  us  look  at  it  once,  if  for  no  other 
reason,  for  the  sake  of  personal  strength  and  edification.  Shall 
we  have  such  a  great  foundation  and  not  know  it,  and  hide  it 
from  every  one,  when  Christ  wished  to  make  it  open  and  com- 
mon to  every  one,  as  he  says  in  Matt.  v.  15,  16?  Did  Christ 
(Luke  xxiv.  39)  let  His  hands,  and  feet,  and  side,  be  touched  in 
order  that  His  disciples  might  be  certain?  Shall  not  we,  then, 
touch  and  prove  the  Scripture,  which  is  Christ's  spiritual  body, 
to  see  whether  it  is  that  in  which  we  believe  or  not?  For  all 
other  zvritiiigs  are  dangerous  ;  juight,  perhaps,  be  lying  spirits  which 
have  not  flesJi  and  blood  like  Christ ^ 

"With  this  I  will  also  have  answered  those  who  accuse  me  of 
rejecting  all  the  holy  teachers  of  the  Church.  I  do  not  reject 
them,  but  as  every  man  well  knows  that  they  Jiave  sometimes 
erred  as  men,  I  will  not  believe  them  further  than  they  give  me  evi- 
dence of  their  views  from  the  Scripture,  which  has  never  yet  erred ; 
and  this,  Paul  commands  me  to  do  (i  Thess.  v.  21):  Prove  all 
tilings,  hold  fast  that  zvliich  is  good.  To  the  same  effect  writes 
St.  Augustine  to  St.  Jerome :  '  I  have  learned  to  give  only  to 
the  books  that  are  called  the  Holy  Scripture  this  honor,  that  I 
firmly  believe  that  none  of  the  writers  of  them  has  ever  erred ; 
but  all  others  I  read  in  this  way,  that  I  do  not  regard  as  true 
what  they  say,  unless  they  prove  it  fj'om  the  Holy  Scripture  or 
clear  reason.' 

"  The  Holy  Scriptures  must,  indeed,  be  clearer  and  more  cer- 
tain than  any  other  zvritings,  inasmuch  as  all  teachers  substan- 
tiate their  doctrines  by  them,  as  by  the  clearer  and  more  durable 
Scripture,  and  will  have  their  writings  confirmed  and  grounded 
in  them.  No  man  expects  to  prove  a  dark  discourse  by  one  that 
is  darker  still.  We  are  driven  by  necessity,  tJierefore,  to  carry  the 
Writings  of  every  teacher  to  the  Bible  and  thence  to  bring  judgment- 


THE    CONSCIENCE    BOUND    IN    THE    WORD    OF    GOD.  1 23 

and  decision  in  regard  to  it ;  for  it  alone  is  the  true  master  over 
all  doctrines  and  writings  on  earth.  If  this  may  not  be,  of  what 
use  is  the  Scripture?  let  us  reject  it,  and  content  ourselves  with 
human  books  and  teachers."     (Vol.  xvii.,  p.  340.) 

"  We  have  a  right  to  resist  the  power  of  Councils,  to  reject 
their  acts,  to  judge  their  laws,  and  freely  to  confess  what  we 
think  right,  whether  it  be  condemned  or  confirmed  by  whatever 
Council  it  may  be.  This  article  the  Papists  malignantly  inter- 
preted, as  if  I  would  teach  that  every  one  may  willfully,  and 
without  reason,  resist  the  Councils,  which  never  came  into  my 
head  or  my  pen.  But  I  have  said  that  when  they  teacJi  anything 
in  the  council  contrary  to  the  Scripture,  we  slioidd  believe  the  Scrip- 
ture more  than  the  Council.  The  Scriptures  are  our  right  and 
defiance,  witli  wJiich  we  may  resist  an  angel,  as  Paul  (Gal.  i.  8) 
commands  ;  miicJi  more,  Pope  and  Co?c)icil."     (Vol.  xvii.,  p.  36.) 

"  Unless  I  should  be  convinced  by  testimony  of  the  Holy 
Scripture,  or  by  open,  plain  and  clear  grounds  and  reasons  (for 
I  do  not  believe  either  the  Pope  or  the  Councils  alone,  as  it  is 
perfectly  clear  that  they  have  often  erred  and  contradicted  each 
other) ;  and  unless  I  shall  be  convinced  by  the  passages  zvhich  I 
have  adduced,  and  my  conscience  be  bound  in  the  Word  of  God,  I 
will  recall  nothing ;   because  it  is  neither  safe  nor  advisable  to  do 

anything  against  conscience God's  Word  is  so  clear  that  I 

can  yield  nothing,  unless  I  ani  better  instructed  and  enlightened 
through  the  same  ;  for  St.  Paul  declares  (i  Thess.  v.  21),  We  shall 
prove  all  things,  and  hold  fast  that  zvhich  is  good ;  and  (Gal.  i. 
8,  9),  though  an  angel  from  heaven  preach  any  other  Gospel  unto 
you,  let  him  be  accursed^     (Vol.  xvii.,  p.  580.) 

"  From  this  it  follows  that  we  must  believe  no  teachers,  but 
must  see  xvhether  they  clearly  follozu  the  Scriptures  in  order  that 
7iothing  besides  the  bare  Word  of  God  may  ride  zvithin  every  man. 
This  St.  Paul  teaches  zuhen  he  says  :  Prove  all  things  ;  hold  fast 
that  zuhich  is  good.  He  does  not  say  that  we  should  hold  the 
doctrine  of  every  man,  but  that  we  should  examine  all,  and  hold 

fast  the  good But  if  we  are  to  prove  as   Paul  here  says, 

what  touchstone  shall  zve  adopt,  for  this  purpose,  other  than  the 
Scripture  ?  It  must  be  clearer  and  more  certain  tJian  the  doctrine 
of  the  fathers,  or  Jioiv  could  we  otherwise  prove  and  determine  by 

it  zuhat  is  right  or  zurong  ? Such  jugglery  was  never  heard 

among  the  fathers.     It   is  a  new  discovery  of  the  Pope  and   his 


124  SCRIPTURES    SUFFICIENT    AND    INTELLIGIBLE. 

sects  of  the  high  schools,  that  we  inust  not  receive  the  Scriptures 
naked,  but  according  to  the  interpretation  of  the  fathers,  in  order 

that  we  may  escape  the  sword Aristotle   has  written,  and 

nature  has  taught  the  peasant  without  Aristotle,  that  we  caiinoi 
make  clear  a  dark  and  uncertain  thing  by  that  wluch  is  dark  and 
uncertain  ;  much  /ess  light,  by  darkness  ;  but  the  dark  and  uncer- 
tain, by  light  qnd  certainty.  As,  then,  all  the  fathers  prove  their 
works  by  the  Scriptures,  it  is  not  to  be  believed  that  they 
were  so  stupid  and  foolish,  that  they  regarded  the  Scripture,  by 
which  they  expounded  and  made  clear  their  doctrines,  as  a 
dark  fog;  but  that  they  regarded  the  Scripture  as  the  princi- 
pal light,  and  of  all  others,  the  clearest  and  most  certain,  to 
which  they  appealed;  and  upon  which  they  relied,  as  upon  that 
most  open  and  clear  doctrine,  zvJiich  zvas  to  judge  and  prove  all 
other  doctrines.  Thus  also  St.  Augustine  declares  that  he  would 
believe  no  teacher,  however  learned  he  might  be,  unless  he 
proved  his  doctrine  by  the  Scripture  or  clear  reason.  But  from, 
this  we  learn,  how  we  are  to  read  the  fathers  ;  that  we  shall  not 
regard   what  they  say,  but  ivhether  they  have  clear  Scripture  or 

reason In  truth  there  is  enough  written  in  the  Scriptures  to 

make  more  commands  and  lazvs  tinnecessary.  Indeed,  there  is  no 
longer  any  power  on  earth  authorised  to  make  Christian  lazvs,  as 
I  have  often  showed  "  (Vol.  xvii.,  p.  28). 

The  following,  taken  from  Melanchthon's  reply  to  the  French 
Sorbonne,  translated  by  Luther  into  German,  breathes  the  same 
spirit  (Vol.  xvii.,  p.  673) : 

"  If  then  there  are  no  articles  of  faith  except  those  contained 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  why  should  it  be  regarded  unchristian 
to  reject  the  authority  of  the  holy  fathers  and  Councils,  provided 
we  do  not  reject  the  Scriptures  ?  Luther  does  not  reject  the 
Scriptures,  as  you  yourselves  acknowledge ;  why,  therefore,  is 
he  denounced  as  unchristian  ?  He  rejects,  you  say,  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  Scriptures  which  has  thus  far  been  accepted  by  the 
high  schools,  the  Councils,  and  the  fathers.  So  I  see  clearly 
that  this  is  the  main  point.  Permit  me  here  then,  Magistri 
Nostri,  to  ask  zvhetlier  the  Scriptures  were  not  given  in  such  a 
zvay,  that  their  meaning  coidd  be  ascertained  without  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  fathers ,  the  Coiaicils,  the  universities  ?  Or  is  it  not  so  ? 
If  you  deny  that  the  meaning  of  the  Scriptures  is  clear,  indepen- 
dently of  glosses,  then  I  do  not  see  why  the  Sacred   Scriptiires 


THE    HOLY    SPIRIT    DESIRES    TO    BE   UNDERSTOOD.  1 25 

were  given  ;  inasmuch  as  the  Holy  Spirit  did  not  desire  to  make 
certain,  what  He  wished  to  have  imderstood  by  us.  But  then 
why  do  the  Apostles  urge  us  to  teacJi  the  Scriptures  zvitli  all 
diligence,  if  their  meaning  is  uncertain  f  And  what  will  you  say 
to  this,  that  the  fathers  would  not  have  themselves  believed  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  their  doctrine  was  established  by  the  Scriptures? 
Also  what  do  you  say  to  this,  that  the  old  Councils  have  deter- 
mined nothing  without  the  Scriptures  ?  And  this  is  also  the 
mark  by  zvhich  zve  detect  the  difference  between  the  true  and  false 
Councils,  that  the  true  are  consonant  with  clear  Scripture,  but  the 
false  are  in  disagreement  with  it.  Therefore  you  must  admit 
that  the  mea?ung  of  the  Scriptures  is  so  certain  and  clear  that  it 
explains  itself  wherever  there  was  before  a  dark  place,  in  those 
things  zvhich  the  Holy  Ghost  woidd  have  to  be  known  and  be- 
lieved. Now,  without  doubt,  He  desired  that  the  law  should  be 
known,  as  He  commanded  it  to  be  written  upon  the  door-posts 
and  upon  the  hems  of  the  garments.  So  also  He  desired  the 
gospel  to  be  understood,  that  is,  the  manner  in  zvhich  we  are  justi- 
fied through  Christ.  For  if  the  Word  of  God  is  to  be  a  rock,  to 
which  the  soul  is  to  betake  itself,  how  must  we  regard  it,  if  it 
be  uncertain,  what  the  meaning  of  God's  Spirit  is  ?  If  then  the 
meaning  of  the  Scriptures  is  certain,  it  is  to  be  preferred  not  only 
to  the  universities  or  fathers,  but  also  to  the  Councils,  if  they 
would  hold  otherwise,  as  the  Apostle  says  (Gal.  i.  9):  'Though 
an  angel  from  heaven  teach  any  other  gospel,  let  him  be  ac- 
cursed.' Therefore,  Luther  has  a  right  to  oppose  the  certain 
meaning  of  the  Scriptures  to  the  Councils,  fathers  and  uni- 
versities." 

We  have,  thus,  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  involving 
saving  faith  and  saving  truth  ;  faith  produced  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
through  the  gospel — faith  in  which  is  personal  certainty  both  of 
salvation  and  of  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures.  This  leads  to  the 
question  of  the  relation  of  saving  faith  to  the  Sacred  Scriptures 
as  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE  INSEPARABLE  UNION  OF  THE  TWO  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  REFOR- 
MATION, OR  RATHER  THE  UNITY  OF  THE  TWO  ASPECTS  OF  THE 
ONE  GREAT  PRINCIPLE  IN  THE  PRODUCTION  OF  ASSURANCE  OF 
SALVATION. 

In  what  way  do  the  Sacred  Scriptures  become  the  sufficient 
and  only  infalhble  rule  of  faith  and  practice?  How  are  they 
related  to  the  experience  of  justification  by  faith  in  Christ — to 
the  feeling  of  the  certainty  of  salvation  ?  That  we  must  have 
some  rule,  some  criterion  of  true  faith,  is  felt  by  all  who  sin- 
cerely seek  to  be  assured  of  their  salvation.  Before  the  Refor- 
mation the  following  views  were  entertained.  We  will  compare 
these  with  those  of  the  Reformation. 

§  I.  Pre-Rcformaiion  Theories. 

1.  The  theory  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  is,  that  the 
authority  of  the  Church,  in  its  visible  and  hierarchical  form, 
alone  decides  what  is  the  true  rule  of  faith,  and  what  is  the  true 
interpretation  of  that  rule.  The  idea  is  that  God,  once  for  all, 
by  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  at  Pentecost,  bestowed  upon  the 
Church  all  saving  truth  and  constituted  her  the  faithful  conser- 
vator and  the  infallible  interpreter  of  saving  truth,  made  her  the 
judge  of  the  inspiration  and  apostolic  character  of  all  writings, 
the  sole  determiner  of  the  canon  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and 
the  authoritative  expounder  of  all  revealed  truth. 

2.  From  this  extreme  of  the  hierarchical  party  the  heretical 
mystics  revolted  to  the  opposite,  and  taught,  that  we  are  imme- 
diately in  communion  with  God — in  communion  with  Him  ante- 
cedently to  and  independently  of  all  means  of  grace  and  of  all 
objective  authority.  This  could,  at  last,  result  only  in  that 
rationalism  which  makes  the  human  mind  itself — the  moral  con- 
sciousness of  man — the  source  of  saving  truth. 

3.  Against  both  these  parties  the  Biblicists  of  the  Middle 
Ages — such  as  the  Waldenses  and  Wickliffites — held  forth  the 
Sacred  Scriptures   as  the   only  rule  or  standard  by  which   the 

(126) 


ROMAN    AND    MYSTICAL    THEORIES    REJECTED.  12/ 

faith  of  the  individual  and  of  the  Church  must  be  guided  and 
tested. 

§  2.   The  Theory  of  the  Reformation. 

The  Reformation  agreed,  in  regard  to  the  authority  of  the 
Bible,  with  the  views  of  the  last  against  the  two  former  parties. 
We  have  seen,  in  the  quotations  already  made,  how  decidedly 
Luther  rejected  the  Roman  theory.  He  is  equally  explicit  in 
his  opposition  to  the  mystical  ideas  as  they  manifested  them- 
selves in  the  fanatical  parties  of  his  day.  Thus  in  commenting 
upon  John  xiv.  25-28  (Vol.,  x.,  p.  88),  he  turns  it  first  against 
the  Romanists  and  then  against  the  fanatics.  "  'Also  he  shall 
teach  you  again  to  remember  what  I  have  said  unto  you ;  that 
it  is  My  Word  and  doctrine ;  with  this  he  shall  remain  and  of 
this  remind  you,  that  you  may  -understand  and  Judge  that  it  is 
My  Word,  and  even  that  which  I  have  said  unto  you ;  and  ex- 
hibit and  make  clearer  the  same  from  day  to  day,  that  ye  may 
better  and  better  know  Me,  and  hoiu  through  Me  ye  are  rescued 
from  sin  and  death.' 

"  This  I  say  in  answer  to  the  papists  who  come  with  this  pas- 
sage and  boast  the  glorious  name  of  the  Christian  Church ;  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  teaches  her,  and  that,  therefore,  we  must  keep 
what  she  says ;  for  this  is  true  and  right.  But  here  the  question 
arises  who  the  Church  is  or  is  not  ?  And  in  determining  this 
question,  'ye  must  judge,'  says  Christ,  'whether  My  Word  is 
there.  For  the  Holy  Ghost  shall  come  in  My  name  and  teach 
what  I  have  said.  If  it  be  anything  different  front  this,  or  not 
agreeable  to  this  Word,  it  is  not  the  Christian  Church  f  For  how 
could  the  Church  come  to  that,  that  she  could  alter  or  reverse 
her  Lord's  Word.  Were  she  the  right  Church  she  would  say, 
T  cling  to  the  Word  of  my  beloved  Lord,  Christ,  and  there  will 
I  remain.  According  to  this  will  I  judge,  and  not  hold  with 
those  who  would  do  otherwise,'  as  she  has  done  in  former  times 
when  she  condemned  all  heresy  and  false  doctrine,  indeed,  but 
not  out  of  her  own  head — as  do  the  Pope  and  his  faction — but 
according  to  the  Scriptures  and  Christ's  Word,  and  deciding 
thus :  '  This,  says  my  Christ,  this  the  Holy  Ghost  has  taught 
me ;  therefore,  Arius  and  others  who  teach  the  contrary  are 
heretical  and  false  teachers.' 

"This  is  determining  in  the  right  way,  as  the  Christian  Church 


128  INSEPARABLE   UNION    OF   THE   TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

should  determine ;  and  this  we  should  keep  arid  obey.  But 
what  is  different,  such  as  garments,  diet,  and  other  outward 
show,  that  is  not  determined  in  this  way.  For  it  is  not  Christ's 
Word,  but  from  the  Pope's  own  opinion.  There,  they  order 
what  they  will,  but  the  Church  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  For 
what  God's  Word  teaches,  and  wliat  the  Cliristian  CJmrch  deter- 
mines, that  belongs  not  to  this  life  but  to  the  life  to  come  ;  and,  for 
this  reason,  it  miist  proceed  not  froju  our  head,  but  from  above, 
from  Christ,  and  according  to  His  commandment. 

"  But  if  now  we  have  preserved  this  text  against  the  papal  fac- 
tion, there  come  afterwards,  on  the  other  side,  other  spirits,  and 
say  they  arc  they  loho  have  the  Spirit,  and  know  of  nothing  else  to 
boast  than  only  the  Spirit,  the  pure  Spirit,  and  also  make  a  very 
great  shoiu,  and  have  grand  words  with  it,  as  Jioiv  the  Anabaptists 
and  their  like,  and  in  former  times,  the  Montanists  and  many 
others.  And  this  alone  is  the  controversy  with  all  factions,  that  they 
claim  to  have  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  are  therefore,  to  be  believed  in. 
And  we  must  ever  be  in  conflict  with  the  devil  and  such  spirits. 
But  if  we  take  a  right  view  of  this  passage  and  the  like  of  it,  we 
can  very  well  judge,  and  reject  everything  that  is  contrary  to  it. 
For  let  them  bring  what  they  will,  I  know  well  what  my 
Lord,  Christ  says,  and  what  I  am  to  believe.  If  one  come, 
therefore,  and  present  anything  to  me  as  taught  or  revealed  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  I  keep  to  the  Word  and  hold  this  doctrine  7tp  to  it,  as 
to  the  true  touclistone.  If  now  I  see  that  it  agrees  with  that  zvhich 
Christ  says,  I  receive  it  as  right  and  good.  But  if  it  be  a  depart- 
ure from  it,  or  would  produce  something  different  from  it,  then 
I  say  :  Thou  art  not  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  the  detestable  devil.  For 
the  true  Spirit  comes  in  no  other  name  than  in  the  name  of  Christ, 
and  teaches  nothing  other  thaji  what  the  Lord  Christ  has  said. 
Thus  we  can  protect  and  guard  ourselves  against  all  error  and 
false  spiritualism,  if  we  will  only  remain  with  this,  and  retain 
this  passage  truly  and  purely,  and  knozv  that  the  Holy  Ghost  does 
not  bring  humafi  nonsense  or  trifles,  but  great  and  earnest  matters 
— Christ  and  His  gifts.  And  we  can  boldly  rely  upon  it,  and 
conclude  that  we  who  have  Christ  are  holy  before  God,  and 
have  the  Holy  Ghost  with  us,  over  against  all  other  and  self- 
chosen  holiness." 

But  to  the  view  of  the  mere  Biblicists,  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation  added  personal,  conscious  assurance  of  salvation,  the 


DEFECT    OF    THE    BIBLICISTS'    THEORY.  1 29 

gospel — the  glad  tidings  of  salvation — as  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation,  saving  faith,  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  The  mere 
Biblicists,  before  the  Reformation,  did  not  clcmdy  apprcJiend  justifi- 
cation by  faith  in  Christ  alone,  and  consequently  did  not  connect 
this  special  inner  conscious  assurance  in  personal  experience  of  the 
power  of  the  Word  as  distinct  from,  the  formal  Scriptures,  zvith  the 
objective  certainty  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  While  they  clung  to 
the  letter  of  the  Scriptures  and  made  it  the  rule  of  faith,  they 
overlooked  the  power  of  the  saving  content  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures to  produce  faith,  the  suitableness  of  the  plan  of  salvation 
to  the  spiritual  nature  and  wants  of  man,  the  self-authenticating 
power  of  the  truths  of  redemption  to  the  inquiring  soul.  They 
did  not  apprehend  the  distinction  between  the  saving  truth  con- 
tained in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  as  a  means  of  grace,  and  the 
Scriptures  in  their  formal  character  as  the  rule  of  faith,  the 
standard  of  divine  truth ;  thus  making  them  a  mere  outward 
law.  There  was  on  this  point,  notwithstanding  their  antagonism 
in  other  respects,  a  great  similarity  between  the  method  of  the 
Romanists,  which  made  the  Church,  and  that  of  the  Biblicists, 
which  made  the  Scriptures,  merely  in  \\\€\x  formal  character,  the 
only  rule  of  faith,  or  rather  the  object  of  faith  as  well  as  its  rule. 
By  separating  the  letter  from  the  spirit — and  forgetting  that 
though  "  the  Scriptures  are  able  to  make  wise  unto  salvation," 
they  are  only  able  to  do  this  "  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ" — 
the  Biblicists  give  only  a  purely  objective  lazv  in  the  Sacred 
Scriptures;  just  as  the  Romanists  do   in  the  Church. 

We  have  seen  how  much  Luther  insisted  on  personal  assur- 
ance, inner  and  conscious  experience  of  certainty ;  the  witness  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  our  spirit  of  the  power  of  Christ  to  save,  and 
of  our  adoption  into  the  family  of  God;  on  the  actual  experi- 
ence of  a  filial  spirit,  of  the  spirit  of  adoption;  on  the  inner  real- 
ization of  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
actual  rejoicing  in  hope  of  His  glory.  It  was  the  conception 
and  experience  anew  of  the  Christian  revelation  as  the  perfect 
revelation  of  God,  and  of  the  union  and  communion  between 
Divinity  and  humanity.  Against  the  Roman  view  this  sliuts 
out  all  mediation  of  the  Church  in  the  matter  of  the  certainty  of 
truth,  of  Christian  saving  truth.  While  the  revelation  was  not 
yet  complete,  as  in  the  Old  Testament  Dispensation,  there  was 
a  necessity  of  such  mediations — of  a  succession  of  priests  and 


130  INSEPARABLE    UNION    OF    THE    TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

prophets.  But  when  in  the  fullness  of  time  the  perfect  revela- 
tion was  made  by  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  this  neces- 
sity ceased.  All  mediations  are  now  concentrated  in  the  person 
of  the  Saviour,  whether  it  be  of  truth  or  of  holiness,  of  knowl- 
edge or  of  sanctification.  With  the  manifestation  of  Christ  is 
inseparably  connected  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  as  Christ  is 
the  Saviour  of  the  individual — as  salvation  is  a  personal  matter 
— the  Holy  Spirit  is  given  to  all  zvJio  hear  the  gospel  of  this  sal- 
vation, and  are  sincerely  seeking  an  interest  in  its  provisions. 

The  several  lines  of  prophecy  in  the  Old  Testament  run 
together  into  a  centre,  in  which  there  is  the  human  manifestation 
of  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  appearance  of  the  Son  of  man.  This 
centre  is  the  incarnation  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  whom  "dwelleth  all 
the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily,"  as  well  as  all  the  fullness  of 
humanity.  In  the  language  of  Irenseus :  "  Christ  is  the  reca- 
pitulation of  humanity."  As  long  as  this  person  had  not  yet 
come,  as  long  as  this  perfect  revelation  had  not  yet  been  made, 
these  mediations  went  on;  but  when  He  came,  they  ceased. 
Men  now  come  immediately  to  God  in  Christ,  and  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  which  record  this  ^icvkct  revelation — by  divine  power 
— interpret  themselves.  Tins  shozus  the  error  of  the  Romanists' 
theory.  And  the  fact  that  in  this  sacred  history,  this  historical 
revelation,  we  have  the  only  perfect  revelation  of  God,  shozvs  also 
the  defect  of  the  mystical  idea  of  immediate  communion  zvithmit 
the  means  of  divine  revelation,  of  an  inner  light  independent  of  the 
gospel.  The  Scriptures  contain  the  word  which  is  the  means  of 
grace,  of  communion  for  sinful  men,  and  they  are  the  only 
security  of  our  connection  with  the  Saviour.  And  it  shows  the 
defect  of  the  Biblicists  viezv,  in  overlooking  the  fact  that  this  rev- 
elation mnst  be  conceived  of  and  believed  in,  as  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation — that  tlie  gift  of  Christ  is  inseparable  from  the  gift 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  the  individual  believer,  and  that  consequently 
the  Sacred  Scriptures  are  means  for  producing  faith  as  well  as, 
ride  of  faith. 

Only  in  the  light  of  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  there- 
fore, in  its  aspect  of  justification  by  faith  in  Christ  alone,  coidd 
the  relation  of  the  Scriptures  and  faith,  and  the  way  in  zvhicli  they 
became  the  only  ndc  of  faith,  be  clearly  appreJiended.  Luther,  at 
the  Reformation,  connected  the  mystic  s  doctrine  of  tlie  necessity  of 
inner  experiejtce,  zvith  that  of  the  authority  of  the  outer  zvord.    In 


THE    CHARACTERISTIC    OF    THE    REFORMATION.  I3I 

the  union  of  faith  and  the  word,  of  the  two  great  principles  in- 
volved in  this  subject  of  the  certainty  of  salvation,  of  the  ma- 
terial principle  and  the  formal  principle ;  the  one  the  fact  of 
justification  by  faith  alone,  the  other  that  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures being  the  only  rule  of  this  faith, — is  the  characteristic  of 
the  Reformation.  In  other  zvords,  the  great  Reformers  received 
the  one  great  principle  with  its  t7(>o  aspects,  the  material  and  the 
formal.  These  tzvo  aspects  are  not  to  be  separated  in  our  appre- 
hension of  the  ground  of  the  certainty  of  salvation.  Luther  rec- 
ognized the  truth  that  the  Scriptures,  by  their  saving  contents, 
are  the  means  of  grace,  as  well  as  they  are,  in  their  form,  the  rule 
of  faith ;  that  by  their  contents,  namely  saving  truth,  the  proc- 
lamation of  the  divinely  revealed  method  of  salvation,  they  do 
— whatever  may  be  the  form  or  the  way  in  which  these  contents 
come  to  us — produce,  under  the  ever-accompanying  influence  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  saving  faith  in  the  subject  zvho  is  sincerely  seeking 
salvation ;  and  that  then  this  faith  thus  produced,  recognizes  the 
Scriptures  as  containing  the  truth  and  as  being  the  only  infallible 
source  of  the  truth  by  luhich  it  was  produced,  and  freely  accepts 
them  as  the  guide  and  ride  of  its  being.  Luther  says,  "  To  this 
effect  we  have  a  certain  prophecy  of  the  Lord :  '  For  as  the 
rain  cometh  down,  and  the  snow  from  heaven,  and  returneth  not 
thither,  but  watereth  the  earth,  and  maketh  it  bring  forth  and 
bud,  that  it  may  give  seed  to  the  sower,  and  bread  to  the  eater : 
so  shall  My  Word  be  that  goeth  forth  out  of  My  mouth :  it  shall 
not  return  unto  Me  void,  but  it  shall  accomplish  that  which  I 
please,  and  it  shall  prosper  in  the  thing  whereunto  I  sent  it.' 
From  this,"  he  adds,  "  it  is  certain  that  it  is  impossible  that  there 
shotdd  not  be  Christians  zvhere  the  gospel  is."  The  truth  which 
is  in  the  Bible,  is  the  power  of  God,  and  it  finds  a  lodgment  in 
the  heart  of  the  believer ;  so  that  faith  and  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures have  a  close  connection.  We  should,  therefore,  keep  the 
material  and  the  formal  principles  of  the  Reformation  together 
in  the  groundwork  of  our  theology.  In  deep  states  of  piety  this 
is  really,  perhaps — whatever  may  be  the  appearances  to  the 
contrary — 'always  done  either  consciously  or  unconsciously. 
Science,  however,  even  Christian  science,  in  other  conditions  of 
experience,  or  in  the  absence  of  experience — is  apt  to  forget 
this  inseparable  connection.  Let  us  then,  for  a  while,  fix  our 
attention  upon  it. 


132  INSEPARABLE    UNION    OF    THE    TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

§  3.   TJiis  Unity  is  found  in  the  Adaptedness  of  tJie  Gospel  to  the 
Capacity  and  Wants  of  Man. 

The  principle  of  the  Reformation  is,  that  the  content  of  the 
Scriptures,  namely,  saving  truth,  is  self-evidencing,  authenticates 
itself  to  the  sincere  soul;  and  that  it  can  be  traced  back  to  books 
of  undoubted  Apostolic  origin  and  authority.  This  involves  the 
truth  that  we  have  religious  susceptibilities  and  wants,  to  which 
the  great  substance  of  the  Scriptures  is  adapted.  At  this  point 
they  meet  us  and  attach  themselves  to  us,  as  the  complement  of 
our  spiritual  being,  and  the  guide  to  our  final  destination. 

I.  In  the  relation  of  Creatorship  and  Creatureship  subsisting 
between  God  and  man.  The  fundamental  relation  of  our  being 
is  its  relation  to  God.  Not  only  the  original  ground  but  the  ul- 
timate good  of  our  being  is  in  Him.  Our  condition  is  a  state  of 
absolute  dependence  on  Him.  We  have  our  true  being  only  in 
a  state  of  communion  with  Him.  From  a  true  view  of  his,  not 
merely  relative  dependence  on  other  being,  but  of  his  absolute 
dependence  on  God,  of  his  real  susceptibilities  and  wants  as  a 
creature,  every  sincere  man  must  realize  that  he  possesses  his 
true  being  only  in  a  state  of  normal  relationship  with  God ;  that 
he  must  yield  his  life  to  God  in  order  truly  to  find  it  and  possess 
it ;  that  he  cannot  be  satisfied  by  himself  and  from  himself  The 
true  and  only  satisfying  good,  the  sovereign  good,  the  everlast- 
ing portion  of  the  soul — the  good,  the  possession  of  which  be- 
longs to  the  very  essence  of  its  being — can  be  found  only  in  its 
relation  to  God,  in  communion  with  Him.  Without  this,  empti- 
ness and  vanity,  despondency  and  wretchedness,  must  be  its 
doom.  But  the  difference  between  divinity  and  humanity,  the 
antithesis  of  being  between  Creator  and  creature,  produces  a 
great  want. 

This  want  man  cannot  himself  supply.  He  cannot  produce 
the  good.  He  needs  God,  but  he  cannot  find  Him  by  his  own 
powers.  The  highest  good  is  not  only  not  in  himself,  but  it  is 
not  to  be  found  by  himself  God  is  -not  only  the  sovereign  good 
of  the  soul  but  He  alone  can  bring  the  soul  to  the  enjoyment  of 
Himself,  as  the  end  of  its  being.  God  is  not  only  the  life,  but 
the  way  and  the  truth.  The  earnest  soul  yearns  after  God  ;  it 
seeks  the  light  of  eternity,  and  would  view  all  things  in 
their  relation  to  God  and  immortality;  longs  for  divine  manifest- 


DIVINE   SCRIPTURE   AND    HUMAN    CAPACITY.  1 33 

ations,  for  the  discovery  of  the  divine  will.  But  these  yearn- 
ings and  premonitions  would  be  in  vain  without  divine  revela- 
tion. If  we  are  to  come  into  communion  with  God,  He  must 
make  Himself  known  to  us.  Our  capacity  for  the  good  is  a 
receptivity ,  not  a  productivity ,  a  capacity  to  receive  not  to  produce 
the  good.  We  can  cognize  the  fact  of  the  divine  existence ;  from 
His  general  revelation,  may  conceive,  in  some  measure,  what  He 
is,  but  not  how  He  is.  What  He  is  in  Himself  and  in  what  rela- 
tion He  stands  to  us,  we  can  learn  only  from  special  revelation. 
An  objective,  historical  revelation  is  indispensable  to  true  reli- 
gion. God  must  come  to  us,  if  we  are  to  come  to  Him  ;  He 
must  condescend  to  us,  if  we  are  to  ascend  or  be  raised  to  com- 
munion with  Him.  He  must  have  a  life  in  us  in  order  that 
we  may  live  a  life  in  Him. 

This  is  as  practicable  as  it  is  necessary.  Our  nature  has  capac- 
ity for  God;  we  can  receive  Him,  if  He  present  Himself;  we  are 
susceptible  to  His  influence,  if  He  draw  near  to  us.  We  are 
finite,  indeed,  but  we  are  made  for  the  infinite  and  destined  to 
the  eternal.  In  His  infinity,  God  is  invisible,  dwelleth  in  light 
which  is  inaccessible,  inapprehensible  to  man.  But  as  He  made 
us  for  Himself,  He  can  reveal  Himself  to  us;  He  can  make  Him- 
self known  to  us  by  means  adapted  to  our  nature,  give  us  man- 
ifestations of  Himself  suited  to  our  religious  susceptibility  ;  He 
can  give  an  objective  revelation  which  shall  make  us  con- 
scious of  our  inner  connection  with  Him,  of  our  spiritual  rela- 
tionship to  Him.  Such  a  revelation  in  its  absolute  perfection  is 
found  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  In  the  work  of  creation,  in  the 
forms  and  movements  of  nature.  He  manifests,  indeed,  His  wisdom 
and  power,  and  in  some  measure.  His  goodness;  but  His  personal 
life.  His  holiness  and  His  grace,  can  speak  to  us  only  in  the  lan- 
guage of  man,  can  be  manifested  only  in  the  mind  and  heart  of 
humanity.  This  He  does  in  the  sacred  history,  in  the  acts  of 
revelation  recorded  in  the  Bible,  and  which  have  their  culmina- 
tion in  the  incarnation  of  His  only  begotten  Son.  Jesus  Christ 
takes  up  into  Himself  all  preceding  revelations  general  and 
special.  He  is  not  merely  a  symbol  or  sign  of  the  presence  of 
God ;  not  merely  a  means  by  which  God  reveals  doctrine  con- 
cerning Himself;  not  merely  the  organ  of  divine  manifestations, 
but  God  Himself  the  zvay,  the  truth,  the  life.  He  that  seeth  Him 
hath  seen  the  Father.     He,  who  in  the  beginning  was  with  God, 


134  INSEPARABLE    UNION    OF    THE   TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

was  God ;  the  eternal  Logos — by  whom  all  things  were  made, 
and  in  whom  they  subsist ;  by  whom  and  through  whom  and 
for  whom  all  things  were  made — was  made  flesh :  is  as  truly 
man  as  He  is  truly  God.  Humanity  is  made  the  revelation  of 
divinity.  The  Eternal  Word  was  made  flesh  in  order  that  we 
might  have  the  word  of  the  Incarnate  Word,  the  glad  tidings  of 
human  salvation.  The  gospel — the  power  of  God  inherent  in 
the  Eternal  Word  and  manifested  in  the  Incarnate  Word — is  now 
proclaimed,  and  consequently  is  the  poiuer  of  God  unto  salva- 
tion to  every  one  that  believeth,  to  the  susceptible  soul,  the  soul 
yearning  for  communion  with  God.  This  gospel  is  tlie  substance 
of  the  Bible.  The  contents  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  are,  there- 
fore, a  saving  pozver  to  the  souls  zuho  long  for  God,  making  them 
partakers  of  divine  benefits  and  changing  them  from  mere  creatures 
into  dear  children  of  God. 

2.  But  we  especially  need  such  a  special  revelation  of  saving 
truth,  as  sinful  beings.  If  we  are  to  love,  serve  and  enjoy  God, 
His  grace  must  be  presented  to  us  as  sinners ;  it  must  be  preven- 
ient  and  gratuitous  ;  it  must  seek  us,  before  we  seek  it ;  it  must 
promise  us  deliverance  from  the  condemnation  and  power  of  sin, 
from  its  guilt  and  pollution,  before  it  requires  of  us  repentance  and 
holiness,  or  we  can  never  be  raised  from  our  dread  and  hatred 
into  confidence  and  love  toward  God.  It  must  be  a  revelation, 
not  so  much  of  what  God  requires,  as  of  what  He  graciously 
gives.  It  must  come  to  us  in  the  depth  of  our  guilt  and  de- 
pravity ;  condescend  to  us,  sinful  and  ignorant,  despairing  and 
helpless  men,  and  i^aise  us  by  the  liand  of  free  forgiving  love  into 
the  condition  and  feelings  of  children.  That  we  may  apprehend 
grace,  it  must  be  freely  offered  ;  that  we  may  be  able  to  repent, 
pardoning  mercy  must  precede,  and  must  first  be  revealed. 
This  is  the  substance  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures — Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified  for  sin,  raised  from  the  dead  for  justification  ;  made 
of  God,  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and  sanctification  and  re- 
demption ;  Jesus  Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever, 
set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  through  faith  in  His  blood.  But 
this  gospel  pointing  men  to  the  lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world,  to  the  atoning  blood  of  Christ — no  mattei, 
in  what  form  it  comes  to  them — is  the  power  of  God  unto  sal- 
vation to  every  one  of  them  that  believes.  And  we  have  assur-- 
ance  because  this  gospel  and  this  faith  are  from  the  same  Spirit. 


UNION    OF    THE    GOSPEL   AND    THE   SPIRIT.  1 35 

To  be  effectual  in  proclaiming  this  faith,  and  the  living  experi- 
ence of  assurance  of  salvation,  the  gospel  is  inseparable  from  the 
operations  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  As  we  have  seen  in  the  extracts 
from  Luther,  it  is,  according  to  the  principle  of  the  Reformation, 
only  by  this  superadded  immediate  influence  of  the  Spirit,  that 
the  Scriptures  are  able  to  produce  saving  faith.  "  No  man  call- 
eth  yesns  Lord,  save  by  the  Spirit  of  God!'  The  content  of  the 
Bible  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  only  where  it  is  appre- 
hended by  that  faith  which  is  wrought  in  us  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
which  accompanies  its  proclamation.  Mere  intellectual  appre- 
hension of  the  divine  Scriptures,  without  a  living  contact  of  their 
content  zvith  the  spiritual  susceptibility,  such  as  the  personal  Holy 
Spirit  alone  can  effect,  would  not  produce  saving  faith.  The 
Bible  cannot  take  the  place  of  the  Spirit ;  it  is  only  an  instru- 
ment, adapted  and  powerful,  indeed,  but  it  is  only  the  means  of 
the  Spirit's  agency  in  regenerating  the  heart,  in  giving  assurance 
of  the  gracious  presence  of  God  and  the  enjoyment  of  the 
divine  life  in  the  soul.  Only  thus  can  the  spiritual  susceptibility 
be  met,  and  the  spiritual  want  satisfied ;  only  the  personal 
Spirit  can  enter  into  the  inner  sanctuaiy  of  the  personal  soul 
and  fill  it  with  all  the  fullness  of  God ;  only  by  His  power  can 
the  central  point  of  the  human  spirit  be  brought  into  contact 
with  the  great  object  of  religion ;  only  thus  can  there  be  pro- 
duced in  it  personal,  conscious  assurance  of  truth — true  faith  in 
the  realities  of  the  scheme  of  redemption;  only  thus  can  it  be 
penetrated  to  the  very  depths  of  its  being  and  supplied  with  the 
power  of  an  eternal  life.  "  We  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory  of 
God,  because  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  the  heart  by  the 
Holy  Ghost."  The  Spirit  uses  the  external  letter  as  means  in 
producing  an  experience  of  a  personal  interest  in  the  grace  of 
God,  in  making  man  an  actual  partaker  in  divine  forgiveness,  a 
joyous  possessor  of  the  divine  salvation.  God  works  faith ; 
man  acts  it.  The  justified  sinner  exercises  a  faith  produced  by  the 
revelation  of  j^esus  Christ  and  the  gift  of  the  Spirit.  Luther 
says :  "  We  should  never  forget  that  Christ  not  only  merited  for 
us  forgiveness  of  sin,  but  also  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;''  and  he 
declares,  as  we  have  seen,  that  no  man  would  ever  savingly  be- 
lieve if  the  Holy  Spirit  did  not  work  faith  in  him.  But  when- 
ever a  man  does  put  forth  the  act  of  faith,  produced  and  called 
forth  by  the  Spirit,  the  act  of  confiding  surrender,  and  accepts 


136  INSEPARABLE    UNION    OF    THE   TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

the  saving  content  of  the  Scriptures,  then  he  becomes  conscious 
of  the  possession  of  it ;  he  receives  the  blessing  of  assurance  of 
salvation ;  he  has  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  to  a  filial  relationship 
with  God,  in  which  God  treats  him  though  a  sinner  as  if  he  had 
never  sinned,  though  a  rebel  as  if  he  had  always  obeyed.  It  is 
by  such  testimony  of  the  Scriptures  and  by  such  witness  of  the 
Spirit,  that  the  believer  has  full  satisfaction  for  all  his  wants,  and 
experimental  knoivledge  of  the  fact  that  he  stands  iipon  the  foun- 
dation of  all  religiojis  truth.  The  light  of  all  truths  in  religion, 
and  that  which  authenticates  them  all,  is  the  fact  of  salvation  in 
Christ — is  God  in  Christ.  This — the  saving  content  of  the 
Scripture — ^may  come  to  the  inquiring  mind,  even  in  the  absence 
of  the  Bible,  by  oral  communication,  and  under  the  influence  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  authenticate  itself  to  the  heart  as  God's  Word. 
It  brings  to  consciousness  the  deep  wants  of  man,  revealing 
man  to  himself  in  the  hideousness  of  his  sins ;  it  manifests  God 
in  Christ,  the  chief  among  ten  thousand  and  the  one  altogether 
lovely ;  it  thus  draws  man  away  from  himself  in  his  odiousness, 
and  attracts  him  to  the  Saviour  in  His  loveliness.  It  causes  the 
sincere  man  to  realize  its  divine  self-evidencing  power ;  it  brings 
him  to  the  very  centre  and  source  of  all  divine  truth,  into  the 
light  of  all  our  seeing  in  religion,  into  the  certainty  which  char- 
acterizes consciousness  in  all  our  knowledge.  The  witness  of 
the  Spirit  is  manifest,  not  only  in  the  peace  of  the  reconciled  and 
renov^ated  conscience,  and  the  power  of  the  new  and  blessed  life, 
but  also  in  the  knowledge  of  the  illuminated  and  regenerated 
mind. 

With  what  assurance  and  confidence  Luther  speaks  on  this 
point  we  have  seen,  but  a  ^qw  more  of  his  declarations  will  be 
edifying.  "  Then  I  say,  apprehend  this  gospel  well,  for  it  is 
given  to  neither  Pope  nor  Councils,  nor  to  any  man,  to  determine 
for  2is  zvhat  true  faith  is.  For  Christ  says,  Beware  of  false 
prophets.  Either  this  gospel  must  be  false,  or  the  Pope  and  the 
Councils  are.  Christ  says  we  have  the  right  to  Judge  all  doctrines, 
and  whatever  is  proposed  to  be  held.  The  Lord  does  not  here 
speak  to  the  Pope,  but  to  all  Christians.  And  as  this  doctrine 
is  spoken  to  all,  namely,  '  Whatsoever  ye .  woidd  that  otJiers  should 
do  unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  tliem  f  so  these  words  exclude  no 
man:  ^Beware  of  false  prophets!  From  this  it  follows  clearly 
that  I  may  decide  upon  doctrine.      TJiou  must  knoiu  before  all 


SPIRITUALITY    AND    INTERPRETATION.  1 37 

Councils  that  this  is  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  altJwiigh  all  men  should 
speak  othej"wise.  Also  this  doctrine  :  Thou  canst  not  help  thy- 
self; Christ  is  thy  Saviour,  who  effects  that  thy  sins  are  forgiven. 
Thou  must  boiv  and  acknoivledge  in  thy  heart  that  it  is  so  ;  and 
if  thojL  dost  not  feel  it,  tliou  hast  not  tJie  faith,  but  the  word  hangs 
upon  thine  ear,  and  rolls  upon  thy  tongue  like  the  bubble  upon 
the  water,  as  the  prophet  Hosea  says.  Therefore  let  not  your- 
selves be  persuaded  that  you  must  believe  what  the  Pope  says 
or  the  Councils  determine.  If  thou  knozvest  God,  thou  hasi 
already  the  test,  the  standard,  the  rule  whereby  thou  canst  judge  all 
doctrines  of  the  fathers,  to  wit,  if  thou  knozvest  that  Christ  is  our 
salvation,  that  He  governs  us  and  that  we  are  sinners.  If  then, 
some  one  should  come  and  say,  Thou  must  become  a  monk, 
thou  must  do  thus  and  thus,  if  thou  would  be  saved ;  faith  alone 
is  not  enough  for  salvation;  thou  canst  certainly  say,  thou  art 
a  lying  spirit ;  thy  doctrine  is  false  ;  for  he  that  believeth  in 
Christ  is  saved :  because  it  is  Christ  who  teacheth  thee  this  thy  faith 
in  the  heart.  Therefore  no  man  can  secure  himself  against  error 
unless  he  be  a  spiritual  man  ;  for  this  St.  Paid  saitJi  (i  Cor.  ii.  1 5) : 
He  that  is  spiritual  judgetJi  all  things  and  is  judged  of  no  man. 
Thus  none  can  judge  false  doctrine,  but  the  spiritual  man.  There- 
fore, it  is  all  a  silly  thing  that  the  Councils  would  determine 
and  establish  what  we  are  to  believe,  when  often  there  is  not  a 
man  in  them  who  has  tasted  of  the  Holy  Ghost  even  in  the  least 
degree.  Thus  it:  happened  in  the  Council  at  Nice,  that  they 
were  about  to  make  laws  concerning  the  spiritual  office,  that 
ministers  should  not  marry — which  was  manifestly  all  false, 
because  it  has  no  ground  in  the  divine  Scriptures — when  a  single 
man,  by  the  name  of  Paplmutius,  arose  and  overturned  all  this, 
and  said,  Not  so  ;  this  is  not  Christian.  Then  this  whole  Coun- 
cil— which  yet,  without  doubt,  had  many  excellent  and  learned 
men — were  obliged  to  stop  short  of  this  conclusion,  and  yield  to 
this  simple  but  pious  man.  For  God  is  inimical  to  high  titles 
and  human  wisdom,  and,  therefore,  from  time  to  time,  allows 
them  to  meet  with  a  bad  reception,  and  brings  their  undertakings 
to  shame ;  that  men  may  see  that  the  proverb  is  true,  Die 
gelehrten,  die  verkehrten  (the  more  learned,  the  more  perverted). 
Therefore,  thou  must  experience  in  thyself  that  thou  canst  say  : 
God  has  said  this ;  that,  God  has  not  said.  As  soon  as  thou 
sayest,  this  men  have  said,  that  the  Councils  have  determined — • 


138  INSEPARABLE   UNION    OF   THE    TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

thou  hast  already  built  upon  the  sand.  Therefore,  there  is  no 
judge  on  earth  in  spiritual  matters  over  Christian  doctrine,  except 
the  person  wlio  lias  the  true  faith  in  his  heart;  be  it  man  or 
woman,  young  or  old,  servant  or  maid,  learned  or  unlearned; 
for  God  does  not  regard  the  person ;  for  all  who  keep  His 
commandments  are  equally  dear  to  Him,  and  hence  they  alone 
have  authority  to  judge."     (Vol.  vi.,  p.  183). 

§  4.    Application  of  this  Unity  to  the  Literpretation  and  Canonicity 
of  the  Scriptures. 

In  the  production  of  faith  are  involved,  thus,  our  wants  as 
finite  and  as  sinful  beings,  the  adaptedness  of  saving  truth  to 
these  wants,  and  the  fact  that,  in  whatever  way  this  truth  comes 
to  us,  it  can  be  traced  to  inspired  books — books  of  the  apostolic 
origin  of  which  there  has  never  been  and  never  can  be  any  doubt 
among  Christians.  The  idea,  then,  is  this  :  tlie  Gospel  as  con- 
tained in  undoubted  apostolic  books  produces  faith,  and  from  this 
faith  results,  the  determination  of  the  canonicity  or  inspiration  of 
books  about  zuhich  there  has  been  and  may  be  dispute,  and  the  in- 
terpretation of  passages  in  the  Bible  which  may  be  obscure.  Thus 
we  say  that  we  have  received  the  determination  of  the  canon  of 
Scripture,  and  the  interpretation  of  its  meanmg,  not  so  much 
from  the  intellectual  acumen  of  the  visible  Church,  as  from  the 
living  faith,  the  experimental  piety,  the  spirituality  of  the  invis- 
ible Church,  of  the  cono-reration  of  the  saints,  of  the  true  be- 
lievers  in  Christ  scattered  throughout  Christendom,  of  the  spirit- 
ual men  of  whom  Luther  speaks — the  Paphnutiuses  who  could 
say:  This  is  Christian,  that  is  7iot ;  this  is  God's  Word,  that  is  7tot. 

I.  The  Romanists  sa.y,frst:  That  zee  are  dependent  upon  the 
visible  Church  for  the  right  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures.  They 
say  it  cannot  be  made  conceivable  that  faith  alone  can  understand 
the  Scriptures.  We,  on  the  other  hand,  say,  that  there  is  no  right 
pd  interpreter  zvitliout  faith.  It  is  only  t/wough  the  faith  produced 
by  the  saving  content  of  the  Scriptures  that  their  meaning  can  be 
understood  and  appreciated.  The  literary  learning  and  scientific 
attainments  of  the  visible  Church,  are,  indeed,  important,  and 
should  neither  be  despised  nor  neglected  ;  but  the  saving  content 
of  the  Scriptures  is  a  spiritual  reality,  and  it  can,  consequently, 
be  fully  apprehended  only  by  a  spiritual  mind.  To  understand 
and  appropriate  it,  the  soul  must  have  affinity  for  it,  and  sympa- 


FAITH    THE    TRUE    INTERPRETER.    '  1 39 

thy  with  it.  "  The  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the 
Spirit,  neither  can  he  know  them,  because  they  are  spiritually 
discerned."  "As  John  says  (i  John  ii.),"  is  the  explanation  of 
Luther :  "  The  unction  teaches  it,  that  is,  even  as  the  Holy  Spirit 
speaks  it  in  the  heart,  so  it  agrees  with  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Be- 
hold, this  is  the  art  ivJiicli  we  are  to  learn  here,  and  not  in  the 
schools  of  men,  but  from  above  through  the  Holy  Ghost,  zvho  is  in 
this  matter  the  only  teacher  and  doctor  "  (Luther,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  1 17). 
And  though  intellectual  culture  and  scientific  skill  are  valuable 
helps  to  faith  in  the  work  of  learned  investigation,  yet  such  is 
the  intelligibility  of  the  Scriptures,  that  their  saving  content 
cannot  but  be  intelligible  to  all  who  are  spiritually  disposed. 
"  We  have  received,  not  the  spirit  which  is  of  the  world,  but  the 
spirit  which  is  of  God,  that  we  might  know  the  things  that  are 
freely  given  us  of  God."  It  is  by  "  being  rooted  and  grounded 
in  love  that  we  become  able  to  comprehend  with  all  saints  what 
is  the  length,  and  breadth,  and  height,  and  depth,  and  know  the 
love  of  Christ  which  passeth  knowledge."  The  believing  mind, 
by  the  very  character  zvhich  has  been  pj'oduced  by  the  saving  co7i- 
tent  of  the  Scinptures,  becomes  the  proper  medium  of  their  expo- 
sition. It,  and  it  alone  is  fundamentally  qualified  to  discern  and 
to  express  their  true  meaning. 

Nor  is  faith  dependent  upon  any  human  fonmda  of  doctrine, 
or  tipon  any  human  authority,  for  the  right  interpretation  of  the 
Scriptures.  Let  us  again  hear  the  principle  of  the  Reformation 
as  it  speaks  to  us  through  its  great  organ,  Luther.  "  First,  it  is 
necessary  to  know  where  and  what  the  Christian  congregation 
is,  in  order  that  we  may  not,  as  has  always  been  the  custom  of 
antichristians,  undertake  human  transactions  under  the  name  of 
the  Christian  congregation.  By  this  the  Christian  congregation 
is  certainly  known,  namely,  where  the  gospel  alone  is  preached. 
For  as  we  know  by  the  banner  of  an  army,  what  general  and 
army  are  encamped  in  a  field,  so  we  certainly  know  by  the  gos- 
pel, where  Christ  and  His  army  are In  the   second   place, 

in  such  a  transaction,  namely,  as  judging  of  doctrine  and  the 
calling  and  dismission  of  teachers  and  pastors,  we  must  not  be 
guided  by  human  lazvs  or  jurisprudence,  old  traditions,  usages,  cus- 
toms, etc.,  or  by  the  idea  that  God  has  conferred  upon  the  Pope 
or  the  Emperor,  or  princes  or  bishops,  this  authority,  even  though 
it  has  been  held  by  half  the  zvorld,  or  the  ivhole  zvorld,  and  exer- 


140  INSEPARABLE   UNION    OF   THE    TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

cised  for  one  or  a  tJiousand  years For  Christ  has  decided 

just  the  contrary.  He  takes  away  from  the  bishops,  the  learned 
and  the  Councils,  both  right  and  power  to  judge  of  doctrine, 
and  gives  them  to  every  man  and  all  Christians  in  common  ;  for 
He  says:  (John  x.  5,  8)  'When  He  putteth  forth  His  own  sheep, 
He  goeth  before  them,  and  the  sheep  follow  Him;  for  they  know 
His  voice.  And  a  stranger  will  they  not  follow,  but  flee  from 
him,  for  they  know  not  the  voice  of  strangers.  All  that  ever 
came  before  Me  are  thieves  and  robbers;  but  the  sheep  did  not 
hear  them.'  Here  you  see  clearly  whose  is  the  right  to  judge 
of  doctrine ;  bishops,  Popes  and  the  learned,  and  every  man  has 
power  to  teach ;  but  the  sheep  are  to  judge  zuhcthcr  they  teach 
Christ's  voice  or  the  voice  of  strangers.  Hear,  beloved,  what 
these  babblers  babble  about  Councils,  that  we  must  hear  the 
learned,  the  bishops,  the  majority,  must  regard  old  usage  and 
custom  !  Do  you  think  I  will  let  God's  Word  yield  to  your  old 
custom,  usage,  bishop?  Never  more.  Then  let  bishops  and 
Councils  conclude  what  they  please ;  but  when  we  have  God's 
Word  for  us,  it  is  for  us  and  not  for  them  to  decide  what  is  right 

and  wrong  ;  and  they  shall  yield  to  us  and  obey  our  word , 

Again  Christ  says  :  Beware  of  false  prophets.  Behold  here  He 
gives  the  power  to  judge,  not  to  the  prophets  and  teachers,  but  to 
the  scholars  or  sheep.  For  how  could  we  guard  against  false 
prophets  if  we  could  not  prove,  judge  and  condemn  their  doc- 
trine? So  there  can  be  no  false  prophet  among  the  hearers,  but 
only  among  the  teachers ;  and  hence  all  teachers,  together  with 
their  doctrine,  must  be  judged  by  them.  So  Paul  says  :  Prove 
all  things ;  hold  fast  that  ivhich  is  good.  Behold  here  he  will 
have  no  doctrine  or  dogma  held  unless  it  be  proved  and  ac- 
knowledged as  good  by  the  congregation  which  hears  it ;  for 
this  proving  beloiigs  not  to  the  teacher,  as  he  must  first  speak  in 
order  that  zve  may  prove.  Thus  is  the  judging  taken  from  the 
teacJiers  and  give Ji  to  the  disciples  among  Christians.  The  consti- 
tution of  Christianity  and  that  of  the  world  is  very  different.  In 
the  world  the  rulers  command  what  they  wish,  and  the  subjects 
receive  it.  But  among  you,  says  Christ,  it  shall  not  be  thus. 
On  the  contrary,  among  Christians,  each  one  is  to  judge  of 
another  and  is  himself  again  subject  to  the  other.  But  spiritual 
tyranny  has  made  a  worldly  government  out  of  Christianity. 
Christ  says  :  Take  heed  that  no  man  deceive  you.    But  why  is  it 


THE  BELIEVER  TAUGHT  OF  GOD.  I4I 

necessary  to  adduce  more  passages.  All  the  warnings  in  Rom. 
xvi.  I,  18;  I  Cor.  iii.  4,  5;  Gal.  ii.  8,  and  everywhere,  all  the 
utterances  of  the  prophets  in  which  \\\Qy  teach  us  to  avoid  1  at  man 
doctrine, — do  nothing  else  than  take  the  right  and  poiver  to  judge 
of  doctrine,  and  lay  it  upon  the  hearers  zuith  the  solemn  command, 
and  at  the  peril  of  their  souls  to  feel  that  they  have  not  only  the 
right  and  the  authority  to  judge  zvhatever  is  preached,  but  that  they 
are  bound  to  judge  it  by  the  fear  of  the  displeasure  of  the  divine 

majesty For  no  man  can   deny  that  every  Christian  has 

God's  Word,  is  taught  of  God,  and  is  anointed  a  priest  as  Christ 
says :  It  is  written  in  the  prophets  ;  and  they  shall  be  all  taught 
of  God.  In  Psalms  xlv.  8,  it  is  said  of  Christ;  God,  thy 
God,  hath  anointed  thee  with  the  oil  of  gladness  above  thy  fel- 
lows. These  fellows  of  Christ  are  Christians,  Chrisfs  brothers, 
anointed  to  be  priests  with  Him.  So  also  Peter  says  :  Ye  are  a 
chosen  generation,  a  royal  priesthood,  a  holy  nation,  a  peculiar 
people  ;  that  ye  shotdd  show  forth  the  praises  of  Him  who  hath 
called  you  out  of  darkness  into  His  marvelous  light"  (Vol.  xviii., 
p.  429). 

"  They  bring  forth  the  saints'  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures. 
This  is  to  be  a  light,  and  to  this  they  hold  fast,  and  think  they 
have  here  what  no  man  can  reject ;  and  they  resist  the  attempt 
to  bring  them  to  the  Scriptures  alone,  and  say :  The  Scriptures 
are  dark  and  many  heretics  are  made  by  it.  Is  not  this  a  master- 
piece of  blasphemy  ?  Who  has  told  thee  that  the  fathers  are  not 
also  dark  ?  Who  will  undertake  to  assure  us  tliat  the  fathers 
do  not  err  in  their  interpretation — inasmuch  as  it  is  manifest  that 
they  have  often  erred,  do  often  contradict  themselves  and  each 
other,  and  are  seldom  agreed.  God  has  ordered  things  in  this 
way,  and  made  the  interpretation  of  the  fathers  uncertain,  that 
He  might  by  all  means  prevent  us  from  wandering  away  from 
the  Scriptures.  Yet  we  slip  away,  and  do  not  permit  ourselves 
to  be  held.  Therefore,  we  are  to  know  that  what  they  say  is 
not  true,  namely,  that  the  fathers  illuminate  the  dark  Scriptures. 
They  do  injustice  to  the  fathers,  and  slander  them.  The  work 
of  the  fathers  is  not  to  illuminate  Scripture  by  their  own  glosses, 
but  to  adduce  clear  Scripture,  and  thus  explain  Scripture  with 
Scripture  alone  zvithout  any  addition  of  their  own. 

"  That  men  become  heretics  through  the  Scriptures,  is  right.     By 
what  else  should  they  become  such.    As  there  is  no  other  book  zvhich 


142  INSEPARABLE    UNION    OF    THE   TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

teaches  the  faith  except  the  Scriptures,  therefore,  like  as  no  man 
can  become  a  Christian  except  alone  in  reference  to  the  Scriptures, 
so  no  man  can  become  a  heretic  except  by  the  Scriptures.  But 
Christ  is  a  sign  to  be  spoken  against  (Luke  ii.  34),  at  zvhich  men 
stumble.  Some  fall  and  rise  again.  Shall  zue,  therefore,  reject 
Him  and  set  tip  another  Christ  beside  Him  ?  You  do  not  use 
wine  and  bread  properly,  shall  we,  therefore,  let  our  fields  and 
vineyards  lie  neglected,  and  cultivate  others  beside  them?  The 
evil  spirit  is  the  enemy  of  the  Scriptures,  therefore,  he  utters 
this  cry  from  a  slanderous  mouth,  and  thereby  slanders  them 
and  makes  them  suspected.  But  what  does  this  gospel  teach?  In 
the  first  place  the  Magi  do  not  ask  for  the  High  Priest,  and  say 
Where  is  Annas  or  Caiaphas  ?  or  how  has  this  one  or  that  one 
lived  ?  but  they  say  where  is  he  who  is  born  king  of  the  Jews  ? 
Yes,  Christ  allows  them  as  an  example  to  us,  to  seek  Him  in  Je- 
rusalem, in  the  Holy  City,  with  the  ministers  and  the  learned,  the 
rulers.  But  He  does  not  allow  Himself  to  be  found  in  a  con- 
secrated place  or  in  holy  postures  ;  and  they  are  not  ansivcred  by 
zvhat  human  glosses  say,  but  by  what  the  bare  Scriptures  say  of 
Christ.  They  alone  are  to  be  sought  ivith  holy  people  and  in  holy 
places.  In  this  is  clearly  represented  that,  irrespective  of  all 
human  works,  doctrines,  glosses,  and  life,  we  shall  have  respect 
to  the  Scriptures  alone  ;  and  that  of  all  holy  lives  or  doctrines,  we 
shall  preserve  this  prerogative  that  we  do  not  allow  ourselves  to 
take  up  all  that  they  teach  or  practice  but  hold  a  judgment  over  it, 
and  with  discrimination  receive  only  that  zvhich  is  agreeable  to  Scrip- 
ture. But  what  is  their  own  without  Scripture,  we  are  to  regard  as 
a  thing  to  be  rejected,  as  St.  Paul  teaches  (i  Thess.  iv.  21):  Prove 
all  things ;  hold  fast  that  which  is  good "  (Vol.  xiii.,  p.  248). 
"They  have  bound  the  sacred  Scriptures  to  the  interpretation  of 
the  fathers,  and  yet  the  same  only  in  so  far  as  it  pleases  the  Pope, 
and  is  not  against  his  law.  Thus  no  man  is  to  use  them  other- 
wise than  it  pleases  the  Pope,  to  whom  alone  it  belongs  to  ex- 
plain the  Scriptures  ;  and  every  man  must  receive  his  knowledge 
and  judgment.  Though  at  the  same  time  in  words,  they  do  the 
fathers  the  honor  that  they  must  follow  their  interpretation.  And 
to  this  the  whole  world  agree,  and  receive  what  the  fathers  have 
said,  as  if  they  could  not  err.  And  here,  again,  the  cry,  ah ! 
how  could  so  many  learned,  holy,  exalted  persons  have  failed  to 
understand  the  Scriptures  ?     Here,  again,  we  are  to  answer,  as 


UNWARRANTABLE    ASSUMPTION    OF    THE    PAPISTS.  I43 

was  said  before,  out  of  the  Gospel, — be  they  saints,  learned 
fathers.  Councils,  or  zvhatever  they  may  be, — if  even  Mary,  joseph, 
and  all  the  saints  together — it  does  not  follozu  that  they  cojild  not 
err.  From  this  gospel  we  should  adopt  as  a  maxim  against  all 
doctrine  which  can  be  presented  to  us,  which  is  not  God's  Word, 
that  we  are  told  that  we  are  not  to  seek  Christ  among  friends 
and  acquaintances,  nor  yet  in  that  which  is  human,  however 
pious,  holy,  or  great  it  may  be ;  for  the  mother  of  Christ  her- 
self erred  and  failed  in  this  that  she  did  not  know  and  under- 
stand it "  (Vol.  v.,  p.  ZZZ)-  "  Thi/s  zve  must  remain  free  judges, 
that  we  have  to  decide  and  judge,  to  receive  or  condemn  what- 
ever the  Pope  establishes  and  the  Co7incils  determine.  But  if  we 
receive  anything,  it  must  be  because  it  agrees  with  07/r  conscience 
and  with  the  Scriptures,  and  not  because  they  say  it.  Therefore, 
Paul  says  (Rom.  xvii.  7) :  '  Let  us  prophesy  according  to  the 
proportion  of  faith  ;'  for  all  prophesying  which  leads  to  de- 
pendence on  works,  and  not  solely  on  Christ  as  their  only  com- 
fort, however  precious  it  may  seem  to  be,  is  not  according  to  the 
analogy  of  faith  ;  such,  as  the  revelations  of  racketing  spectres, 
the  masses,  pilgrimages,  fastings,  and  seeking  the  merits  of  the 
saints.  In  this  respect  many  of  the  holy  fathers  have  erred,  such 
as  Gregory,  Augustine  and  others,  that  they  have  taken  this 
right  of  judgment  from  us.  For  this  misery  and  distress  had 
an  erring  origin,  namely,  that  we  must  believe  the  Popes  and  the 
Councils  "  (Vol.  vi.,  p.  182). 

"  The  other  wall  (of  the  papal  fortress)  is  still  more  frail 
and  unsound,  that  they  alone  wish  to  be  regarded  as  masters 
of  the  Scriptures  ;  for  we  know  they  have  never  in  their  lives 
studied  anything  in  them.  They  assume  all  government  in 
the  interpretation  of  them,  and  parade  themselves  before  us 
with  the  shameless  words  that  the  Pope  cannot  err  in  faith, 
whether  he  be  wicked  or  pious,  and  though  he  cannot  adduce 
a  single  letter  of  Scripture.  Hence  it  comes  that  there  are 
so  many  heretical  and  unchristian,  yea  unnatural  laws  in  the 
spiritual  jurisprudence — of  which  it  is  not  necessary  now  to 
speak.  For  while  they  suppose  that  the  Holy  Spirit  does 
not  leave  them,  no  matter  how  unlearned  and  wicked  they  may 
be,  they  become  rash  and  establish  what  they  please.  And 
if  this  were  so,  for  zvliat  7ise  or  necessity  zvould  the  Holy  Scriptures 
be?  Let  us  burn  them  and  content  ourselves  with  the  unlearned 


144  INSEPARABLE   UNION    OF   THE    TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

gentlemeji  at  Rome,  tvho  have  the  Holy  Ghost  inherently  which 
yet  pious  hearts  may  not  have  inJiercntly.  If  I  had  not  read  it,  it 
would  have  been  incredible  to  me,  that  the  devil  should  originate 
such  miserable  things  at  Rome.  Yet  that  we  may  not  fight 
against  them  with  words,  we  will  adduce  the  Scripture ;  Paul 
says  :  '  That  we  shall  prove  all  things ;  and  hold  fast  to  that 
which  is  good.'  Of  what  use  would  this  command  be,  if  only 
he  who  speaks  or  presides  was  to  be  believed.  Also  Christ 
says :  '  That  all  Christians  shall  be  taught  of  God.'  Tints  it 
may  happen  that  the  Pope  and  his  party  may  be  wicked  ajid  not 
true  Christians,  nor  yet  taught  of  God,  nor  have  a  right  tinder- 
standing.  0)1  the  other  hand,  a  lowly  pious  person  may  have  the 
right  understanding,  because  he  is  taught  of  God.  Wherefore 
shall  we  not  follow  him?  Has  not  the  Pope  often  erred?  Who 
would  help  Christendom,  if  another,  who  has  the  Scriptures 
before  him,  were  not  to  be  believed  more  than  he?  Wherefore 
it  is  a  wildly  imagined  fable,  and  they  cannot  bring  forth  a 
single  letter  to  prove  that  the  Pope  alone  is  to  interpret  Scripture 
or  to  establish  their  interpretation.  They  have  usurped  this 
authority.  And  though  they  pretend  that  the  authority  was 
given  to  Peter,  and  that  the  keys  were  given  to  him;  it  is  plain 
enough  that  they  were  not  given  to  Peter  alone,  but  to  the 
whole  Church.  In  addition  to  this,  the  keys  are  designed  not 
for  doctrine  or  government,  but  alone  to  bind  and  loose  in 
reference  to  sin;  and  it  is  a  pure  fiction  what  they  otherwise  and 
further  ascribe  to  themselves  from  the  keys.  That  zvhat  Christ 
says  to  Peter :  I  have  prayed  for  thee  that  thy  faith  fail  not, 
extetids  not  to  the  Pope,  is  evident,  inasmuch  as  most  of  the  Popes 
were  without  faith,  as  they  themselves  must  acknozuledge ;  and  so 
Christ  prayed  not  only  for  Peter,  but  for  all  Apostles  and 
Christians,  as  he  says:  (John  xvii.  9-20)  I  pray  for  them:  I  pray 
not  for  the  world,  but  for  them  which  Thou  hast  given  me  ;  for  they 
are  Thine.  Neither  pray  I  for  these  alone,  but  for  them  also  which 
shall  believe  on  Me  through  their  tvord.  Is  not  this  spoken 
plainly  enough?  Think  for  yourself  They  must  acknowledge 
that  there  are  pious  Christians  among  us  who  have  the  right  faith 
and  spirit,  and  who  understand  the  Word  and  meaning.  Why 
should  %ve  then  reject  their  words  and  7i7ider standing,  and  follow 
the  Pope  tvho  has  neither  faith  nor  spirit?  This  would  be  to  deny 
the  entire  faith  and  the  Christian   Cliurch.     Again,  the  Pope  can- 


THE   AUTHORITY    OF    ROME    A    DELUSION.  1 45 

not  alone  be  right,  if  the  article  be  right:  I  believe  in  a  holy 
Christian  Church ;  or  we  must  pray  in  this  way :  I  believe  in  the 
Pope  at  Rome,  and  limit  the  Christian  faith  entirely  to  one  per- 
son, which  would  be  a  devilish  and  hellish  error. 

"  In  addition  to  this  we  are  all  priests,  as  was  said  above,  have 
one  faith,  one  gospel  and  kind  of  sacrament.  IV/ij  sJioiild  we 
not  also  have  pozvcr  to  Judge  and  decide  zvliat  is  right  or  zuroug  in 
a  faith?  Where  remains  the  word  of  Paul  (i  Cor.  ii.  15):  He 
that  is  spiritual  judgeth  all  things,  yet  he  himself  is  judged  of 
no  man  (2  Cor.  iv.  13).  We  havitig  the  same  spirit  of  faith,  ac- 
cording as  it  is  zjuritten,  I  believed,  and  therefore  have  I  spoken  ; 
zee  also  believe,  and  therefore  speak.  Why  should  not,  then,  we 
feel  as  well,  at  least,  as  an  unbelieving  Pope,  what  is  conform- 
able and  what  is  not  conformable  to  the  faith.  From  all  this, 
and  from  many  other  passages,  we  are  to  become  courageous 
and  free ;  and  not  let  ourselves  be  frightened  by  imaginary 
words  of  the  Popes.  '  Nozv  the  Lord  is  that  Spirit ;  and  ivhefc 
the  spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty!  Let  us  not  be  driven 
from  this  spirit  of  freedom  as  Paul  calls  it,  but  vigorously  proceed 
to  judge,  according  to  our  believing  understanding  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, all  that  they  do  or  omit ;  and  oblige  them  to  follow  the 
better,  and  not  their  own  understanding.  Was  Abraham  in 
former  times  obliged  to  hear  his  Sarah,  who  was  yet  in  more 
complete  subjection  than  we,  to  any  one  on  earth  ?  So  the  ass 
of  Balaam  was  more  prudent  than  the  prophet  himself  Did 
God  then  speak  through  an  ass  against  the  prophet,  why  should 
he  not  now  be  able  to  speak  through  a  pious  person  against  the 
Pope  ?  Again  St.  Paul  reproves  Peter  as  an  errorist,  therefore, 
it  is  proper  for  every  Christian  to  be  a  defender  of  the  faith  ;  to 
stand  for  it,  and  fight  for  it,  and  to  condemn  all  error  "  (Vol.  xvii. 
p.  460). 

This  is  the  expression  of  the  spirit  of  the  great  Reformation, 
and  of  the  spirit  of  all  true  Christianity.  Neither  the  early 
oecumenical  creeds  nor  the  symbols  of  later  times,  nor  even 
the  so-called  Apostles'  Creed,  can,  according  to  this  principle, 
lay  claim  to  be  infallible  interpretations  of  the  divine  Word.  All 
these  are  valuable  helps,  and  as  they  are  the  product  of  times 
when  saving  faith  was  prevalent,  they  may  be  regarded  as  coi 
rect  exhibitions  of  fundamental  truths  of  the  divine  Word ;  and 
we  may  fairly  anticipate  that  they  zvill  be  found  in  accordance  zvith 


146  INSEPARABLE   UNION    OF   THE    TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

the  substance  of  the  Bible.  So  Luther  felt,  and  he  has  expressed 
himself  on  this  point  also.  After  giving  the  Scriptural  idea  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  (Vol.  viii.,  p.  230)  he  says:  "Therefore  you  see 
here  upon  what  the  symbol  of  St.  Athanasius  rests — a  symbol 
which  is  so  composed,  that  I  do  not  know  that  any  thing  more 
important  and  glorious  has  been  written  in  the  Church  of  the 
New  Testament,  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles."  In  another 
place  he  says  :  "Although  I  have  before  taught,  aud  written 
much  concerning  faith,  zvJiat  it  is,  and  what  it  does,  and  have  also 
publislied  my  confession,  hozv  I  believe,  and  hozu  I  intend  to  re- 
main ;  yet  as  the  devil  is  ever  seeking  new  stratagems  against 
me,  I  have  superfluously  published  the  three  symbols  together  in 
German,  which  liave  thus  far  been  held,  read  and  sung  in  the 
whole  Church,  that  I  may  shoiv  that  I  hold  the  true  Christian 
Church  which  has  these  symbols  or  confessions  thus  far,  and  not 
with  the  false  and  boasting  Church  which  is  yet  the  greatest 
enemy  of  the  true  Church  ;  and  has  introduced  much  idolatry 
alongside  of  the  beautiful  confession.  Like  as  in  former  times, 
the  people  of  Israel,  beside  the  beautiful  service  of  God  estab- 
lished in  the  temple,  set  up  much .  idolatry  in  valleys,  on  moun- 
tains and  under  trees,  and  yet  claimed  to  be  the  people  of  God, 
and,  in  virtue  of  this,  persecuted  and  killed  the  prophets ;  and, 
at  last,  also  Christ  Himself"  (Vol.  xxii.,  p.  102.  anno  1545). 

We  should  hold  such  summaries  of  Christian  truth  and  faith 
in  high  respect.  But  to  maintain  that  any  such  rule  or  standard 
is  necessary  to  the  correct  understanding  of  the  Scriptures  is  to 
deny  their  intelligibility.  The  only  rule  is  that  of  the  Protestants 
at  Spire,  that  "  obscure  texts  must  be  explained  by  those  which  are 
clear'' — that  analogy  of  faith,  according  to  which.  Scripture  can- 
not contradict  Scripture,  that  relation  of  connected  truth,  accord- 
ing to  which,  if  any  one  proposition  be  clearly  ascertained  to  be 
true,  the  reverse  of  it,  or  any  proposition  inconsistent  with  it, 
must  be  regarded  as  false ;  and  this  principle  will  clearly  distin- 
guish and  establish  the  saving  content  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures. 

II.  But  in  the  second  place,  the  Romanists  say  that  it  is  only 
by  the  visible  Church  that  we  have  any  reliable  determination 
of  the  canonicity  of  a  book.  In  answer  to  this  we  say  that 
saving  faith — that  spiritual  understandijig  which  believers  have — 
is  the  only  organ  through  zohich  any  satisfactory  determination 
of  this  question  ever  has  been  or  ever  will  be  made.    The  saving 


CANONICITY    DETERMINED   THROUGH    FAITH.  1 4/ 

truth  is  contained  in  books  of  the  Sacred  Volume  whose  canon- 
icity  is  undoubted ;  and  by  the  truths  contained  in  undisputed 
books  of  the  present  canon,  including  not  only  such  as  the 
Epistles  to  the  Romans,  the  Corinthians,  and  the  Galatians, 
whose  apostolic  origin  no  respectable  critic — even  of  the  most 
skeptical  school — has  ever  denied,  but  nearly  all  the  books  of 
the  New  Testament  about  whose  apostolical  character  there  has 
never  been  any  doubt  among  believers, — the  canonicity  of  other 
books  may  be  tested.  This  faith,  we  hold,  was  the  organ  by 
which  the  canonicity  of  the  books  contained  in  our  present 
canon  was  decided,  as  far  as  it  was  decided  ;  and  that  if  there  are 
any  such,  as  the  Antilegomena,  about  the  inspiration  or  apostolic 
origin  of  which  there  was  doubt  in  the  early  times,  doubt  at  the 
Reformation,  and  might  still  be  doubt, — the  question  of  their 
canonicity  will  be  decided,  if  ever  satisfactorily  decided,  by  the 
same  agency.  Not  so  much  through  the  visible  Church  as 
through  the  invisible  faith  of  true  believers,  in  connection  with 
historical  evidence,  have  we  received  the  present  Scriptures  as 
canonical.  By  their  self-evidencing  power,  they  become,  through 
the  instrumentality  of  the  faith  produced  by  them, — self-criticis- 
ing  as  well  as  self-interpreting.  By  the  "  believing  understanding 
of  divine  truth,"  and  the  spiritual  understanding  in  the  congre- 
gation of  believers,  of  which  Luther  so  frequently  speaks,  the 
Scriptures  have  secured  their  place  in  the  canon  and  their  inter- 
pretation for  salvation  and  edification ;  their  canonicity  by  the 
one,  and  their  interpretation  by  the  other.  Through  the  in- 
strumentality of  the  faith,  wrought  by  their  saving  content,  they 
secure  their  self-criticism.  Through  the  agency  of  the  believing 
men,  whose  existence  as  believers  was  effected  by  this  instrumen- 
tality, they  have  secured  their  place  in  the  canon  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  those  books  which  are  not  worthy  of  such  recognition. 
In  addition  to  their  historical  evidence,  their  substance  is  the 
instrument  by  which  faith  is  produced,  and  then  they  become 
the  rule  of  the  faith  thus  produced.  They  have  two  functions ; 
they  are  both  means  of  faith  and  the  rule  of  faith.  First, 
they  are  by  their  contents  mainly  means ;  and  then,  the  only 
rule.  They  bear  to  the  religious  susceptibility  of  man  the  rela- 
tion of  means  of  faith,  even  before  they  are  fully  recognized  or 
understood  as  its  rule.  And  the  one  relation  is  distinguishable, 
and  in  some  measure,  independent  of  the  other.     Thus  it  is  con- 


148  INSEPARABLE    UNION    OF    THE    TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

ceivable  that  the  content  of  the  Scriptures — the  glad  tidings  of 
salvation  through  Christ  —  in  connection  with  their  historical 
evidence,  might  produce  saving  faith  in  a  Roman  Catholic,  even 
while  he  denied  their  authority  as  the  only  infallible  rule  ;  but  if 
he  had  access  to  the  Bible,  he  would  feel  its  claim,  and  if  free 
from  the  prejudices  of  education  and  from  external  restraints, 
he  would  acknowledge  the  Scriptures  to  be  the  supreme  rule  of 
that  faith  which  their  content  had  produced  in  him.  For,  they 
are  for  the  believing  mind  not  merely  an  external  authority;  not 
merely  an  external  rule,  but  an  inner  authority  through  their 
spiritual  content,  their  living  power  —  an  authority  which, 
though  objective  and  authoritative,  is  yet  chosen  and  adopted. 
It  is  not  a  mere  outward  law  with  no  relation  to  the  inner  wants 
of  the  soul  or  to  the  spiritual  laws  of  the  mind,  but  one  which 
through  the  saving  operation  of  its  content,  has  acquired  a  vital 
connection  with  the  intellect,  and  secured  a  welcome  lodgment 
in  the  heart ;  so  that  the  soul  acts  freely  and  lovingly  in  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  truths  of  the  content,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
acknowledge^  the  absolute  authority  of  Scripture,  and  submits 
itself  to  its  control,  just  as  the  process  of  thought  goes  on  as 
freely  after  the  mind  has  discovered  and  recognized  the  neces- 
sary laws  of  all  true  thinking,  and  has  submitted  consciously  to 
the  authority  of  the  laws  of  the  objective  being  which  it  cog- 
nizes ;  and  feels  itself  acting  just  as  freely  as  it  did  before  it  was 
aware  of  their  existence. 

If  the  reader  has  carefully  read  the  extracts  from  Luther,  he 
will  see  not  only  the  doctrine,  but  a  realization  manifest  in  his  per- 
son, of  the  nature  and  practicability  of  this  tinion  of  the  freedom  of 
saving  faith  and  the  authority  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  The 
.spirit  of  inspiration  and  that  of  regeneration  is  one  and  the  same 
teacher  of  truth.  Having  their  origin  in  the  same  Spirit,  saving 
faith  and  the  Scriptures  cannot  be  opposed,  but  must  be  akin  to 
each  other.  They  cannot  be  exclusive  of  one  another.  The 
new  man  in  Christ  subsists  by  the  instrumentality  of  the  sub- 
stance of  the  Scripture  as  well  as  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit. 
It  is  not  by  the  Word  alone,  either  as  contained  in  the  Scrip- 
tures or  as  preached  by  the  Church,  that  the  work  of  regenera- 
tion is  effected  or  that  faith  is  produced.  The  divine  author  of 
the  Word  transcends  it,  uses  it  as  His  instrument  and  makes  it 
efficacious  for  the  great  result.     The  Word  alone  does  not  pro- 


AFFINITY    BETWEEN    FAITH    AND    THE    SCRIPTURES.  I49 

duce  the  new  man ;  the  Holy  Ghost  is  the  efficient  agent.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Holy  Spirit  does  not  operate  without  the 
Word,  which  is  the  substance  of  the  Scripture,  either  in  the  way 
of  external  magic,  as  the  Romanist  supposes,  or  in  that  of  in- 
ternal magic,  as  the  Mystic  imagines.  The  Word  tends  to  pro- 
duce faith ;  it  is  not  powerless  ;  it  does  not  return  unto  God 
void ;  it  presents  the  object  which  is  to  be  believed,  and  thus 
gives  occasion  for  faith ;  it  contemplates,  anticipates,  expects 
faith.  The  Scriptures  have  affinity  with  the  faith  for  whose  orig- 
ination— by  means  of  their  saving  content — they  become  the  in- 
strument of  divine  grace.  They  tend  toward  having  their  content 
received,  believed,  appropriated,  in  a  living,  personal  soul.  The 
truth  is  for  man,  and  man  for  the  truth,  in  a  normal  state  and  re- 
lation ;  consequently,  in  proportion  to  the  restoration  of  the 
soul,  will  be  the  harmony  between  the  Bible  and  the  believer ; 
the  greater  the  affinity,  between  the  spirit  of  the  one  and  the 
other.  On  the  one  hand  the  truly  inspired  Scriptures  will  seek 
faith,  work  faith  in  men,  and  thus  secure  their  self-criticism 
through  them  as  the  organs  for  the  exclusion  from  the  canon  of 
any  book  which  is  not  like  them,  "  not  bone  of  their  bone  nor 
flesh  of  their  flesh."  On  the  other  hand,  faith  will,  by  the  affin- 
ity of  its  spirit  to  that  of  the  substance  of  the  Scriptures,  seek 
them  spontaneously  as  its  authority  and  rule.  It  dwells  in  the 
light  of  the  same  Holy  Spirit,  and  consequently  can  and  does 
discern  the  character  and  claims  of  the  Sacred  Writings  ;  it,  and 
it  alone,  can  7indcrstand  and  appreciate  them  in  all  their  fullness 
and  preciousness.  In  the  enjoyment  of  a  free  delight  and  the 
exercise  of  a  willing  obedience,  it  can  distinguish  genuine  from 
spurious  Scripture.  In  the  confidence,  which  Luther  so  elo- 
quently describes,  it  can  say  and  does  say  of  these  books  :  "  tJiis 
is  God's  Word','  and  of  any  book  not  in  the  same  spirit  and  like- 
ness :  "  that  is  not  from  God!'  It  can  distinguish  what  is  for 
Christ  from  that  which  is  against  Him.  It  cannot,  indeed,  decide 
positively  that  any  book  is  inspired,  as  the  Christian  truths  may 
be  and  are  contained,  in  a  derived  way,  in  other  books.  But  it 
can  decide  negatively,  that  a  book  is  not  inspired,  not  from  God. 
In  this  way  in  addition  to  the  light  of  historical  evidence,  we 
may  suppose  faith  to  have  had  a  determinate  agency  in  the  fixing 
of  the  present  canon.  In  this  way,  we  may  conceive,  were  our 
Sacred  Books  decided  upon  in  the  age  of  living  faith  ;  and  it  is 


150  INSEPARABLE    UNION    OF    THE    TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

thus  that  faith  still  recognizes  and  receives  them.  If  we  keep 
in  view  the  distinction  between  the  material  and  the  form  of 
truth,  and,  consequently,  that  the  contents  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures, that  is,  truth  in  its  material  aspect,  can  act  as  means  of 
grace  producing  faith,  even  before  its  formal  aspect  is  under- 
stood, nay,  independentfy  of  all  questions  concerning  the  inspi- 
ration or  canonicity  of  the  few  books  in  our  Bible  that  have  all 
along  been,  and  are  still  from  time  to  time,  held  in  doubt, — we 
will  see  that  this  is  not  necessarily  reasoning  in  a  circle ;  and 
among  Christians — and  for  the  satisfaction  of  all  who  want  to  be 
followers  of  Christ — it  ought  to  be  sufficient.  In  it,  we  conceive, 
is  2.  just  ground  for  Luther's  decided  rejection  of  the  idea  of  our 
dependence  upon  tJic  ChurcJi,  in  its  visible  organization,  for  the 
fixing  of  the  canon  and  the  interpretation  of  the  meaning  of  the 
Sacred  Scriptures  ;  a  just  ground  for  the  right  of  "  the  Christian 
man  "  in  zvliicli  Luther  so  constantly  exulted ;  for  that  of  private 
judgment,  for  luhich  all  the  Reformers  so  manfully  contended. 

§  5.  Results  of  this  reciprocal  RelationsJiip  of  Faith  and  the  Sacred 

Scriptures. 

This  affinity  of  the  two  principles,  this  connection  of  faith  and 
the  Scriptures,  as  the  work  of  the  same  Spirit,  Luther  seemed  to 
have  in  view,  when  he  says  :  "  You  must  by  yourself,  in  your 
conscience,  feel  Christ  Himself,  and,  consequently,  unchangeably 
experience  that  it  is  God's  Word!'  "God  pours  out  the  Holy 
Spirit  into  our  hearts,  who  says  in  the  heart  that  it  is  so."  "  The 
Spirit  witnesses  with  our  spirit,  that  a  person  attains  to  this, 
that  we  feel  that  it  is  so,  that  he  has  no  manner  of  doubt y  "  A 
new  heavenly  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  presses  Christ 
and  His  work  into  the  heart,  and  makes  a  real  book  of  it,  which 
consists  not  in  letters  and  in  mere  writing,  but  in  true  life  and 
reality!'  "  God  must  witness  it  to  thee  in  thy  heart,  that  it  is 
God's  Word!'  "  Such  an  understanding  is  in  the  Church  through 
illumination  of  the  Spirit!'  "  This  testimony  takes  place  in  this 
way,  namely,  that  as  the  Spirit  works  faith  in  us  through  the 
Word,  we  feel  and  become  conscious  of  His  power ;  a? id  our 
experience  corresponds  zvith  the  Word  or  declaration  of  the  Gos- 
pel!' "  Thou  must  be  as  certain  of  the  matter,  that  it  is  God's 
Word,  as  thou  art  certain  that  thou  livest."  "  They  shall  all  be 
taught  of  God!'     "  It  is  a  divine  work  in  the  spirit."     "  There  is 


HARMONIOUS    BUT    NOT    COMMENSURATE.  I  5  1 

no  man  on  earth  who  imdcrstands  a  jot  or  tittle  of  the  Scriptures 
except  those  who  have  the  Spirit  of  God."  "  Through  an  inner 
judgment  in  which  each  Christian  is  so  enhghtened  by  the  Holy- 
Spirit  of  God's  grace  for  himself  and  his  conscience,  that  he  can 
conclude  with  the  utmost  certainty  concerning  every  doctrine!' 
"  Christ's  sheep  recognize  His  voice!'  "  Therefore,  we  will  stick 
to  the  Word  ajid  faith  against  all  such  temptations  and  cavils." 
If  it  be  objected  that  this  would  make  faith  commensurate 
with  the  Scriptures  ;  because  if  the  Scriptures  contained  more 
than  faith,  they  would  just  so  far  have  no  authority  over  it;  we 
answer  that  this  no  more  follows  than  it  does  that  the  subjective 
idea  in  other  cases  must  be  regarded  as  commensurate  with  the 
objective  law  of  thought,  because  it  freely  receives  that  law;  or 
that  the  objective  law  ceases  to  have  authority  just  so  far  as  it 
contains  more  than  the  subjective  idea.  As  the  objective  law 
contains  more  than  the  subjective  idea,  so  do  the  Scriptures  con- 
tain more  than  faith;  and  as  the  authority  of  the  objective  law 
extends  not  only  to  the  present  extent  of  the  subjective  idea, 
but  is  recognized  as  valid  for  all  increase  of  knowledge ;  so  the 
authority  of  the  Scriptures  extends  not  only  to  the  present 
attainments  of  faith,  but  is  recognized  as  valid  for  all  increase  in 
its  acquisitions  of  divine  truth.  But  however  much  the  Scrip- 
tures may  contain  which  is  not  yet  apprehended  by  faith,  and 
which  may  perhaps  never  be  apprehended,  it  is  certain  that  they 
do  not  contain  anything  which  is  in  contradiction  with  saving 
faith  in  its  essential  nature ;  for  in  this  there  is  the  character  of 
Idivine  certainty,  the  certainty  of  the  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
We  speak,  of  course,  not  of  Christian  faith  in  general,  but  of 
saving  faith  specifically,  of  living  faith  in  Christ  as  the  Saviour 
of  the  soul,  o^  that  faith  zuhich  has  in  it  tlie  assjirance  of  salvation. 
But  of  this  faith,  zve  say  that  so  far  as  it  extends,  it  is  like  the 
Scriptures,  a  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and,  consequently,  it 
cannot  be  contradicted  by  them,  in  its  essential  nature  and 
elements,  in  that  which  constitutes  its  life  and  reality.  In  con- 
trast with  the  positive  character  of  the  evidence  of  history — of 
historical  criticism  and  proof  of  the  apostolic  origin  of  the  Scrip- 
tures— the  influence  of  faith  in  this  matter  is  of  negative  char- 
acter, indeed;  it  does  not  determine  positively  that  a  book  is 
apostolic,  is  inspired ;  it  simply  denies  that  any  book  can  be 
such  which  does  not  teach  Christ,  and  that  any  book  can  be  of 


152  INSEPARABLE    UNION    OF    THE    TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

divine  authority  which  contradicts  that  which  clearly  results  from 
the  proclamation  of  Christ  as  the  only  Saviour  of  men,  and  which 
is  accompanied  by  internal  and  external  evidences  of  its  saving 
power  and  effects.  Christians  even  deny  that  there  is  any  con- 
tradiction between  the  Bible  and  reason.  Luther,  and  other 
heroes  of  faith,  did  not  denounce  reason  itself  as  deceptive  or 
contradictory  to  Christianity.  Dr.  Shedd  says :  "  Single  pas- 
sages may  be  quoted  to  prove  that  the  Christian  apologists  dis- 
paraged reason  and  represented  it  as  inimical  to  revelation.  But 
such  passages  must  be  read  in  connection  in  the  treatise,  or  the 
argument.  Such  expressions,  disparaging  the  use  of  reason  in 
religion,  Baumgarten  Crusius  remarks  may  be  put  into  thiee 
classes  :  (i)  Those  in  which  reason  is  taken  in  its  least  extensive 
sense,  to  denote  the  reason  of  a  particular  party,  system  or 
school ;  (2)  Those  in  which  reason  is  taken  in  the  sense  of 
arrogant  private  opinion,  which  sets  itself  up  against  public 
sentiments,  historical  opinions,  and  authority  generally ;  (3) 
Those  in  which  reason  is  taken  in  the  sense  of  a  one-sided 
speculative  disposition,  that  is  devoid  of  any  profound  religious 
feeling  or  want.  It  is  against  reason  in  this  narrow  and  inad- 
equate signification,  against  which  it  is  as  much  the  interest  of 
philosophy  to  inveigh  as  it  is  of  revelation,  that  the  disparaging 
remarks  frequently  found  in  Tertullian,  of  the  Apologetic  period, 
and  in  Athanasius  and  Augustine,  of  the  Polemic,  are  leveled. 
But  against  the  common  reason  of  mankind,  the  unbiased 
spontaneous  convictions  of  the  race,  no  such  remarks  are  aimed. 
On  the  contrary,  a  confident  appeal  is  made  to  them  by  these 
very  Apologists  ;  while  those  systems  of  philosophy,  and  those 
intellectual  methods,  that  flow  most  legitimately  and  purely  from 
them,  are  employed  by  the  Christian  mind  in  developing  and 
establishing  the  truths  of  revelation."  And  so  Luther  appealed 
to  reason  as  well  as  to  revelation  for  the  certainty  of  his  faith, 
for  he  says  :  "  Unless  I  should  be  convinced  by  the  testimony 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  or  by  open  and  clear  grounds  and 
reasons,  I  will  recall  nothing."  Now  as  the  Scriptures  aie  not 
in  contradiction  even  with  the  common  consciousness,  with  the 
natural  conscience  of  men,  with  their  innate  feeling  of  right, 
hit  make  this  the  point  of  their  contact  zvith  human  nature,  much 
less  can  they  be  in  contradiction  zvith  the  faith  which  is  the  result, 
under  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  that  contact — with  that 


SAVING    FAITH    AND    APOSTOLIC    AUTHORITV.  I53 

faith  which  is  the  Christian  consciousness.  Any  book  found  to 
be  in  contradiction  with  saving  faith  tvould  also  be  found  in  con- 
tradiction with  gemdne  Scripture ;  for  the  Scriptures  acknowl- 
edged by  all  to  be  apostolic,  do,  by  their  content,  produce 
that  faith.  Thus  do  the  Scriptures  exercise  a  self-criticism, 
trying  themselves  and  testing  whatever  claims  to  be  of  divine 
authority  or  to  be  classed  with  them,  through  the  instrument- 
ality of  the  believing  men  whom  they,  by  their  contact,  have 
shared  in  making  believers;  not  by  making  these  men  their 
rulers  but  their  organs,  their  instruments  for  the  removal  from 
the  canon  of  anything  which  does  not  properly  belong  to  it. 
Thus  did  the  Protestants  act  when  they  ejected  from  the  canon 
the  apocryphal  books,  though  the  Roman  Church  had  before  ad- 
mitted them.  Thus  are  the  Scriptures  self-authenticating  to  the 
sincere  souls  seeking  salvation  ;  thus  do  they,  by  their  content, 
become  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  be- 
lieveth;  and  thus  do  they  become  self-interpreting  and  self- 
criticizing  through  the  very  faith  which,  as  means  of  grace,  they 
produce. 

But  true  Christian  faith,  notwithstanding  its  inner  assurance, 
and  though  it  may  have  been  produced  by  the  testimony  of  the 
Church,  the  general  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  the  oral  procla- 
mation of  the  terms  of  salvation  ;  though  it  may  have  been  pro- 
duced by  the  Word  coming  to  the  soul  in  ways  other  than  the 
immediate  possession  and  use  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures ;  yet,  for 
objective  certainty,  and  for  the  certainty  of  the  divine  character 
of  the  Word  by  which  it  was  produced,  does  heartily  recognize 
the  Sacred  Scriptures  as  its  only  infallible  rule.  Consciously  or 
unconsciously  it  goes  back  to  apostolic  testimony.  It  rests  not 
upon  human  but  upon  divine  testimony,  not  upon  mere  thoughts 
of  men  but  upon  the  word  spoken  by  men  "  as  they  were  moved 
by  the  Holy  Ghost" — upon  divine  authority.  The  life  of  faith 
is  produced  by  the  instrumentality  of  the  Word  of  God.  But 
the  source  of  this  life  is  in  Christ,  and  to  be  sure  that  lue  have  the 
life  of  Christ  in  j/s,  ive  must  be  sure  that  zve  have  the  Word  of 
God.  Consequently,  we  must  have  apostolic,  inspired  testi- 
mony; and  this  testimony  we  have,  in  its  full  purity  and  absolute 
certainty,  only  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  "  The  position,"  says 
Dr.  Shedd,  "  which  the  Church  sustains  to  the  individual  is  in- 
dicated, remarks  Augustine,  in  the  words  of  the  Samaritans  to 


154  INSEPARABLE    UNION    OF   THE   TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

the  Samaritan  woman :  '  Now  we  believe,  not  because  of  thy 
saying,  for  we  have  heard  Him  ourselves,  and  know  that  this  is, 
indeed,  the  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world'  (John  iv.  42).  The 
individual  first  hears  the  concurrent  testimony  of  the  great  body 
of  believers  in  every  age,  and  then  verifies  it  for  himself  He 
finds  a  general  unanimity  in  the  Church  catholic  respecting  the 
canonical  and  apocryphal  books,  and  also  respecting  their  mean- 
ing and  doctrinal  contents.  He  goes  to  the  examination  with 
the  natural  expectation  of  finding  that  the  general  judgment  is 
a  correct  one,  and  in  so  far,  he  comes  under  the  influence  of 
traditional  or  Catholic  opinions.  This  is  the  "ecclesiastical 
authority"  which  has  weight  with  him.  At  the  same  time  he 
exercises  the  right  of  private  judgment;  the  right,  namely,  to 
examine  the  general  judgment  and  to  perceive  its  correctness 
with  his  own  eyes.  The  Samaritans  put  confidence  in  the 
testimony  of  the  woman,  but  at  the  same  time  they  went  and 
saw,  and  heard  themselves.  They  came  into  agreement  with 
her  by  an  active,  and  not  by  a  passive  method.  In  employ- 
ing this  illustration,  Augustine  adopts  the  Protestant,  and 
opposes  the  Papal  theory  of  tradition  and  authority.  The 
Papist's  method  of  agreeing  with  the  Catholic  method  is  passive. 
He  denies  that  the  individual  may  intelligently  verify  the  posi- 
tion of  the  Church  for  himself,  because  the  Church  is  infallible, 
and  consequently  there  is  no  possibility  of  its  being  in  error. 
The  individual  is,  therefore,  shut  up  to  a  mechanical  and  passive 
reception  of  the  Catholic  decision.  The  Protestant,  on  the 
other  hand,  though  affirming  the  high  probability  that  the  gen- 
eral judgment  is  correct,  does  not  assert  the  infallible  certainty 
that  it  is.  It  is  conceivable  and  possible  that  the  Church  may 
err.  Hence  the  duty  of  the  individual,  while  cherishing  an  an- 
tecedent confidence  in  the  decisions  of  the  Church,  to  examine 
these  decisions  in  the  light  of  the  written  Word,  and  convert 
this  presumption  into  an  intelligent  perception,  or  else  demon- 
strate their  falsity  beyond  dispute.  '  Neither  ought  I  to  bring 
forward  the  authority  of  the  Nicene  Council,'  says  Augustine 
(Contra  Maximianum  Arianum,  II.  xiv.  3),  '  nor  you  that  of 
Ariminum,  in  order  to  prejudge  the  case.  I  ought  not  to  be 
bound  (detentum)  by  the  authority  of  the  latter,  nor  you  by 
that  of  the  former.  Under  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  not 
those  received  by  particular  sects,  but  those  received  by  all  in 


SCRIPTURES    AND    SURE   APOSTOLIC   TESTIMONY.  1 55 

common,  let  the  disputation  be  carried  on,  in  respect  to  each  and 
every  particular.'  Chiefly  then  through  the  stricter  definition 
and  limitation  of  the  idea  of  revelation,  and  partly  through  the 
need  felt,  in  the  controversies  with  the  heretical  and  separating 
mind,  of  some  infallible  standard  of  appeal,  did  the  authorita- 
tive character  of  the  Scriptures  came  to  be  urged  and  estab- 
lished by  the  apologist  of  the  Polemic  period.  Ever  since  this 
time,  the  Church  has  recognized  the  canonical  books  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments  as  the  only  infallible  source  of  religious 
knowledge  ;  ever  refusing  to  attribute  this  characteristic  to  any 
other  form  of  knowledge,  however  true  and  valid  in  its  own 
province.  The  only  exception  to  this  is  found  in  that  portion 
of  the  history  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  which  tradition 
and  ecclesiastical  authority  are  placed  upon  an  equality  with 
Scripture.  But  this  portion  of  Church  history  is  the  history  of 
a  corruption.  For  the  doctrine  of  the  infallibility  of  the  Church 
is  of  the  same  nature  with  that  of  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope. 
Both  doctrines  alike  imply  an  absolute  exemption  from  error,  on 
the  part  of  the  finite  mind — a  doctrine  which  belongs  to  the 
history  of  heresies." 

Oral  tradition  is  too  uncertain  to  be  trusted.  To  be  certain 
of  apostolical  testimony  in  its  purity,  we  must  have  it  in  a  form 
which  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the  corruptions  and  perversions 
arising  from  the  infirmity  and  wickedness  of  men,  and  this  it  has 
in  the  inspired  Scriptures.  Faith  must  have  the  right  of  private 
judgment,  the  right  of  trying  all  preaching  everywhere  and  at 
any  moment  by  this  infallible  standard.  "  My  sheep  hear  My 
voice,  and  the  voice  of  a  stranger  will  they  not  follow."  This 
constant  right  of  regress  to  apostolical  testimony  by  means  of 
the  Scriptures  makes  practicable  the  objective  certainty  of  faith 
— of  its  connection  with  inspired  truth — makes  it  certain  that  it 
had  its  source  in  the  Holy  Spirit  and  that  its  content  is  Christ 
Himself  The  Spirit  does  indeed  operate  continuously  in  the 
Church,  and  the  Holy  Scriptures  do  not  supplant  or  supersede 
His  presence  ;  they  are  not  a  substitute  for  His  continuous  influ- 
ence. The  Spirit  of  Christ,  the  Spirit  which  He  promised  to 
send,  is  always  here,  but  this  Spirit  operates  through  the  Word, 
and  the  certainty  that  the  preaching,  zvhicJi  we  hear,  is  the  divine 
Word — the  instrumentality  which  the  Spirit  uses,  is  secured  to  us 
only  by  the  inspired  Scriptures.     Only  tJnis  are  we  sure  of  our  his- 


156  INSEPARABLE    UNION    OF    THE    TWO    PRINCIPLES. 

torical  connection  with  the  Christ  of  history.  We  must  ever  keep 
in  view  the  fact  that  it  is  God's  method,  not  to  speak  the  words 
of  grace  to  men,  having  the  Scriptures,  in  any  other  way  than 
through  that  revelation  of  His  salvation,  and  the  truths  derived 
from  it.  As  the  agent  in  our  regeneration  and  sanctification 
has  chosen  this  instrumentality,  and  we  are  not  sure  of  His  ope- 
rations through  any  other,  we  are  and  can  be  certain  of  His  sav- 
ing operations,  only  when  we  use  His  Word,  and  we  can  only 
be  assured  that  we  have  His  Word  by  the  light  and  authority 
of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  They  are  therefore,  the  only  sure 
guide  of  the  divine  life,  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  prac- 
tice. Thus  does  the  faith,  originated  by  the  glad  tidings  of  sal- 
vation— no  matter  in  what  form  they  come  to  us — gain  a  positive 
character,  and  secure  its  purity,  preservation  and  growth  by  the 
authority  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  It,  consequently,  recognizes 
this  authority  for  its  own  sake,  and  because  it  is  akin  to  it ;  not 
driven  by  the  Church,  not  bound,  but  led  by  its  own  peculiar 
and  essential  nature, — it  receives  the  Scriptures  as  the  gift  of  its 
gracious  God,  and  being  itself  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  it  is  qual- 
ified to  discern  the  evidence  of  the  divine  inspiration  of  those 
precious  books.  Being  in  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  these 
writings,  it  closes  in  with  their  authority ;  not  as  something 
which  comes  to  it  with  the  constraint  of  law,  but  as  that  which 
corroborates  its  knowledge,  confirms  its  truth  and  supports  its 
life.  By  virtue  of  the  personal  experience  of  the  subject  of 
faith,  the  Scriptures  become,  by  the  force  of  their  inherent  ex- 
cellence, its  only  sure  source  of  light,  and  its  only  infallible  rule 
of  life.  There  is,  thus,  an  inseparable  connection  between  the 
two  principles.  "  On  this  reciprocal  relation,"  says  Martensen, 
"  depends  the  health  of  the  Church  ;  and  if  we  conceive  a  time 
when  these  factors  shall  have  thoroughly  permeated  one  another, 
then  will  the  Church  have  reached  its  highest  earthly  goal  ;  it 
will  have  returned  through  the  strifes  of  its  period  of  develop- 
ment back  to  the  fullness  revealed  by  the  apostolic  Church  as  a 
model  for  all  time."  How  can  this  relation  be  effectually  pre- 
served ?  And  how  is  this  highest  earthly  goal  of  the  Church 
to  be  attained  ?  We  answer :  by  making  the  great  principle  in 
both  its  aspects,  the  groundtvork  of  the  system  of  our  theology. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

JUSTIFICATION  BY  FAITH  AND  SAVING  TRUTH  IN  THEIR  UNION  MUST 
BE  DISTINGUISHED  AS  A  PRINCIPLE  AND  NOT  BE  TREATED  MERELY 
AS  DOCTRINES  ;  AS  BELONGING  TO  THE  GROUNDWORK,  AND  NOT 
MERELY  AS  A  PART  OF  THE  SYSTEM  OF  THEOLOGY. 

§  I.   TJic  Nature  of  the  Distinction. 

The  principle  of  the  Reformation  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  prin- 
ciple and  not  merely  as  a  doctrine ;  assurance  of  salvation  as  a 
matter  of  experience,  and  not  as  a  result  of  mere  intellectual 
operations,  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  in  the  relation  of  their  saving 
contents  to  the  organs  of  the  religious  consciousness — to  our 
spiritual  capacities  and  wants — as  self-authenticating  and  inde- 
pendent of  scientific  verification.  The  difference  between  this 
and  the  mere  speculative  apprehensions  and  logical  statements 
of  truth  must  not  be  overlooked.  Experimental  religion,  justi- 
fication by  faith  in  Christ,  the  gospel  as  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation,  involve  elements  and  phases  of  truth,  other  than  those 
of  mere  intellection.  They  are  independent  of  science ;  they 
are  not  comprehended  in  the  logical  forms  of  scholasticism  on 
the  one  hand,  nor  in  the  inner  light  of  mysticism  on  the  other. 
Justification  as  a  fact  of  life,  a  matter  of  experience  under  im- 
pressions of  divine  realities  made  upon  the  soul  by  the  gospel 
and  Spirit  of  God — of  the  contact  of  the  divine  objects  of  re- 
ligious faith  with  the  internal  or  spiritual  organs  of  conscious- 
ness— involves  movements  of  the  mind  other  than  those  of 
mere  intellect — a  species  of  knowledge  which  is  independent  of 
the  mere  logical  understanding.  When  men  overlook  this  they 
very  soon  tend  toward  neglecting  justification  by  faith  or,  at 
least,  toward  making  it  a  mere  doctrine,  and  treating  it  co-ordi- 
nately with  other  doctrines  of  the  theological  system.  Instead 
of  being  placed  i7i  the  forefront  as  a  principle,  it  becomes  only  a 
doctrinal  part  of  the  system.  It  is  taken  out  of  its  place  in  the 
foundation,  removed  from  the  groundwork,  and  placed  among 
the  materials  of  the  edifice.     Instead  of  being  the  determining 

(157) 


158  PRINCIPLE   AND    DOCTRINE. 

principle,  it  becomes  a  mere  dependent  part  of  the  system. 
This  separation  of  it  from  hfe,  results  either  in  the  mechanical 
positivism  of  a  lifeless  orthodoxy,  or  in  the  destructive  negativ- 
ism of  a  skeptical  rationalism.  For  as  these  are  but  two  forms 
of  the  logical  understanding  each,  in  its  way,  ignoring  the  vital 
relations  of  truth  to  experience  in  consciousness — to  the  relig- 
ious susceptibility — they  have  an  inner  affinity  which  will  always 
sooner  or  later  manifest  itself  Assurance  of  salvation  now  be- 
comes a  mere  intellectual  question ;  and  an  intellectualism 
results,  which  changes  the  principle  to  a  doctrine  of  the  system, 
and  makes  the  mere  logical  form  of  saving  truth,  as  "  the  pure 
doctrine,"  instead  of  this  truth  in  its  vital  relations,  in  its  self- 
evidencing  power,  the  means  of  grace,  the  source  or  instrument 
of  regeneration  and  sanctification ;  thus,  suspending  salvation 
upon  the  reception  of  a  certain  quantum  of  doctrinal  proposi- 
tions. Theology,  instead  of  being  the  obedient  servant,  assumes 
now  to  be  the  arrogant  mistress  of  saving  truth. 

§  2.  The  First  Clear  Apprehension  of  the  Distinction. 
The  importance  of  the  distinction  here  indicated  was,  indeed, 
recognized  by  the  earnest  opponents  of  a  rationalizing  tendency, 
and  the  true  apologists  for  Christianity  before  the  Reformation. 
But  it  was  first  speculatively  apprehended  and  clearly  pro- 
pounded by  Luther  at  the  Reformation.  His  advance  beyond 
all  his  predecessors  consists  in  his  defining  and  limiting  tJie  inner 
certainty  of  trut/i  in  its  independence  of  science  to  the  personal 
assurajice  of  salvation  through  faith  in  Christ  alone.  Dr.  Shedd 
after  distinguishing  faith  from  the  mere  "  candor  of  mind  or  will- 
ingness to  be  convinced,"  which  even  an  Aristotle  inculcates, 
says  that  in  the  idea  of  the  apologists :  "  Faith  is  not  a  mere 
readiness  to  be  convinced.  It  is  an  actual  assurance  of  the 
mind ;  an  inward  certitude.  Faith  is  the  substance  of  things 
hoped  for  and  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen  (Heb.  xi.  i.)." 
"A  matter  of  the  heart  and  will,  of  life  and  feeling.  It  is  a 
practical,  and  not  a  speculative  act  of  the  mind."  "  The  object 
of  faith  is  not  cognizable  by  the  senses,  for  this  is  the  meaning 
of  invisible  in  this  connection,  The  eternal  world  with  all  its 
realities  stands  in  no  sort  of  relation  to  a  sensuous  organism, 
and  is,  therefore,  inapprehensible  by  any  or  all  of  the  physical 
media  of  knowledge.     Faith,  therefore,  is  the  direct  contrary  of 


FIRST    APPREHENSION    OF    THE    DISTINCTION.  1 59 

infidelity,  which  tests  everything  by  a  sensuous  experience,  and 
does  not  behave  at  all  except  upon  a  sensuous  knowledge  of 
objects.  Faith  is  not  a  sensuous  but  an  intellectual  act,  and  as 
the  etymology  of  the  word  denotes,  is  fidelity  to  the  invisible 
and  eternal;  is  fealty  to  the  invisible,  the.  spiritual,  and  the  su- 
pernatural. It  is  the  positive  certainty  that  these  are  the  most 
real  and  important  of  all  objects,  notwithstanding  that  they  do 
not  come  within  the  sphere  of  sensuous  observation." 

All  this  is  true  of  mere  general  faith  in  the  invisible.  But  if 
the  intellectual  act  which  faith  is  said  purely  to  be,  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  anything  more  than  belief  of  testimony,  it  is  not  in- 
dependent of  science.  It  would  only  be  a  lower  form  of  knowl- 
edge, and  would  be  absorbed  into  science  in  its  higher  develop- 
ment. According  to  Luther's  idea,  the  "  invisible  "  has  become 
manifest  in  Christ  and  the  eternal  has  been  revealed  in  time. 
There  is  one  point  in  which  there  is  a  real  and  actual  union  of 
God  and  man — the  incarnation — and  by  the  gospel  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  the  soul  is  brought  into  actual  union  and  com- 
munion with  God,  with  the  "  King  immortal,  invisible,  the  only 
wise  God,"  in  Christ  through  faith.  Thus  there  is  a  real  though 
not  a  sensuous  contact  of  the  object  of  faith  with  the  organs  of 
consciousness,  with  the  religious  susceptibility,  with  man's  ca- 
pacity for  God,  and  consequently  "  the  inner  certitude,"  the 
"  actual  assurance  of  the  mind,"  of  which  Dr.  Shedd  speaks,  is 
not  purely  "  an  intellectual  act,"  but  is  connected  with  a  real 
experience,  though  not  a  sensuous  ;  with  a  real,  though  spiritual 
contact  of  the  soul  with  the  object  of  faith.  It  is  a  spiritual 
experience — a  faith  involving  more  than  a  purely  intellectual 
act.  This  is  the  realism  of  Luther,  or  rather  the  old  Biblical 
realism  revived  by  Luther,  through  the  principle  of  the  Ref- 
ormation. Luther's  view  of  faith  as  well  as  that  of  his  pre- 
decessors made  faith  rest  on  testimony ;  but  while  the  latter, 
beyond  this  historical  faith,  recognized  only  a  "  purely  intellect- 
ual act,"  Luther  connected  with  this  an  actual  experience  in 
consciousness  as  realized  in  saving  faith.  This  was  with  him 
the  faith  which  has  in  it  certainty  of  truth,  full  and  personal 
assurance  of  mind. 

"  But,"  continues  Dr.  Shedd,  "  while  the  Christian  apologist 
of  this  period  thus  regarded  faith  as  different  in  kind  both  from 
the  cold   speculative  behef  of  the   intellect,  and  the  warm   but 


l6o  PRINCIPLE    AND    DOCTRINE. 

low  certainty  of  the  five  senses,  he  maintained  that  it  is  a 
rational  act  and  state  of  the  soul.  This  is  the  second  charac- 
teristic to  be  noticed.  We  find  in  this,  as  in  the  former  instance, 
the  same  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  defender  of  Christianity  to 
contend  for  the  reasonableness  of  revealed  religion  in  all  its  parts 
and  departments.  This  believing  state  of  the  soul,  which  Chris- 
tianity insists  so  much  upon,  and  which  constitutes  the  very  life 
and  heart  of  this  religion,  is  not  the  credulity  of  an  ignorant  and 
unthinking  devotee.  Hence  the  apologist  sometimes  represents 
faith  as  the  most  natural  state  oi  the  soul.  It  is  the  fountain 
of  human  society,  argues  Augustine ;  we  are  born  in  faith,  and 
are  shut  up  to  it.  Origen  presents  the  same  view  in  his  argu- 
ment against  the  skepticism  of  Celsus.  Polycarp,  in  the  very 
twilight  of  the  controversy  between  faith  and  unbelief,  calls 
faith  '  the  mother  of  us  all.'  Nonnus,  in  similar  phraseology, 
terms  faith  '  the  boundless  mother  of  the  world.'  These  ex- 
pressions relate,  it  will  of  course  be  understood,  to  faith  in  its 
most  general  signification.  They  were  not  made  with  any  direct 
reference  to  that  more  restricted  and  peculiar  act  of  the  soul  by 
which  the  justifying  work  of  the  Redeemer  is  appropriated ; 
though  it  deserves  to  be  noticed,  they  are  not  without  a  valid 
application  to  justifying  faith  itself  But  these  and  similar  state- 
ments of  the  defender  of  Christianity  were  intended  to  specify 
the  nature  of  the  general  attitude  of  the  mind  towards  revealed 
truth,  and  invisible  things,  which  is  required  of  man,  in  order 
that  he  may  apprehend  them.  The  apologist  claimed  that  this 
recumbency  of  the  soul  upon  the  supernatural,  the  invisible,  the 
specially  revealed,  was  a  most  reasonable,  and  in  one  sense  of 
the  word,  as  Augustine  teaches,  a  natural  act  and  state  of  the 
human  mind.  Employing  the  term  *  natural '  to  denote  what 
belongs  to  man's  original  created  nature, — to  what  belongs  to 
his  first  unfa'.len  nature,  in  distinction  from  his  second  apostate 
nature, — the  Apologete  maintained,  in  opposition  to  the  skep- 
tic, that  the  Christian  faith  does  no  violence  to  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  rational  spirit,  but  on  the  contrary,  falls  in  with 
its  deepest  wants  and  necessities,  and  is  therefore  a  natural  act 
and  condition.  Faith,  he  said,  corresponds  to  and  satisfies 
the  original  needs  of  man  and  human  society.  It  is  the  only 
safe  and  tranquil  mental  state  for  a  creature  who  like  man  has 
not  yet  entered  the  eternal  and  invisible  world,  and  who,  there- 


THE    FAITH    WHICH    PRECEDES    SCIENCE.  l6l 

fore,  must  take  eternal  things  for  the  present  upon  trust.  And 
as  matter  of  fact,  so  affirmed  the  defender  of  faith,  we  begin  to 
exercise  faith  in  some  form  or  other,  as  soon  as  we  begin  to  ex- 
ist, either  physically  or  morally.  The  child  is  the  exhibitor  and 
the  symbol  of  this  characteristic  (Matt,  xviii.  2—4) ;  and  in  ma- 
ture life  those  who  cease  from  the  trusting  repose  and  faith  of 
childhood,  and  become  unbelieving  and  infidel,  run  counter  to 
the  convictions  of  the  majority  of  mankind.  In  this  sense,  and  by 
such  and  similar  tokens,  faith  is  perceived  to  be  natural,  and  un- 
belief unnatural.  The  former  consequently  is  rational,  the  latter 
irrational;  so  that  the  apparent  contrariety  between  faith  and 
reason  disappears,  as  soon  as  a  central  point  of  view  is  attained. 

"The  distinction  itself  between  faith  and  science  had  already 
been  made  in  the  preceding  Apologetic  period,  by  the  Alexan- 
drine School.  The  great  founder  and  head  of  this  school,  Ori- 
gen,  though  one  of  the  most  speculative  minds  previous  to  the 
school-men,  was  careful  to  lay  down  the  position  that  '  faith  pre- 
cedes scientific  knowledge  in  the  order  of  nature.'  He 
steadfastly  taught  that  the  speculative  is  grounded  in  the  practi- 
cal, and  not  vice  versa,  and  that  it  is  impossible  to  build  up  a 
Christian  science  out  of  any  other  materials  than  those  which 
are  furnished  by  revealed  truth,  wrought  into  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness. Hence  evangelical  faith  in  the  heart  must  precede 
the  philosophical  cognition  of  Christianity.  It  does  not  exist 
prior  to  any  and  every  kind  of  knowledge,  but  prior  to  scientific 
knowledge.     Faith  is  an  intelligent  act,  but  not  a  scientific!' 

Dr.  Shedd  says  :  "  These  expressions  relate,  it  will  of  course 
be  understood,  to  faith  in  its  most  general  signification.  They 
were  not  made  with  any  direct  reference  to  that  more  restricted 
and  peculiar  act  of  the  soul  by  which  the  justifying  work  of  the 
Redeemer  is  appropriated."  This  was  precisely  their  defect. 
They  had  no  clear  apprehension  of  justification  by  faith,  and, 
consequently,  did  not  and  could  not  make  it  the  faith  which  pre- 
cedes science  and  is  independent  of  it.  And  we  would  not 
only  say  with  Dr.  Shedd  that  "  it  deserves  to  be  noticed,  that 
their  expressions  are  not  without  a  valid  application  to  justify- 
ing faith  itself,"  but  we  go  further  and  say  that  this  is  the  only 
faith  to  which  they  are  strictly  applicable  at  all — the  only  faith 
which  has  assurance  of  truth. 

"  With  these  positions  of  Origen  and  his  school,  Augustine 
II 


l62  PRINCIPLE   AND    DOCTRINE. 

agreed  entirely,  as  did  the  Church  generally,  during  the  polemic 
period."  "  He  postpones  scientific  knowledge  to  faith,  and  recog- 
nizes in  Christianity  the  only  absolute  religion  for  mankind,  to 
which  he  requires  the  human  mind  to  submit  itself;  for  faith  in 
the  object  precedes  the  scientific  cognition  of  the  object.  Reason, 
he  says,  would  never  have  delivered  man  from  darkness  and  cor- 
ruption, if  God  had  not  accommodated  Himself  to  the  finite,  and 
'aim  popidan  quadain  dementia'  humbled  the  divine  intellect 
even  to  the  human  nature  and  the  human  body."  "  It  is,  there- 
fore, a  reasonable  act,  when,  in  matters  pertaining  to  salvation, 
which  we  are  not  able  to  understand  completely  as  yet,  but 
which  we  shall  be  able  to  understand  some  time  or  other,  our 
faith  precedes  our  reason,  and  so  purifies  the  heart  that  we  be- 
come capable  of  the  light  of  the  perfect  and  supreme  Reason." 

"  Whether  faith  is  prior  or  posterior  in  the  order  of  nature,  to 
science,  is  the  test  question  that  determines  the  character  of  all 
philosophizing  upon  Christianity.  If  faith  in  the  phrase  of 
Clement,  be  regarded  as  elementary,  the  test  and  epitome  of 
science,  there  is  little  danger  that  the  substance  of  Scriptural 
Christianity  will  be  evaporated  in  the  endeavor  to  exhibit  its 
reasonableness.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  order  is  reversed,  and 
scientific  knowledge  is  made  to  precede  belief;  if  the  dictum  is 
laid  down,  as  it  was  by  Abelard  in  the  next  period,  that  there  is 
no  believing  antecedent  to  scientific  understanding,  and  conse- 
quently that  the  degree  of  posterior  faith  depends  upon  the  de- 
gree of  anterior  science  :  then  the  all-comprehending  mystery 
and  depth  of  revealed  religion  will  be  lost  out  of  sight  and  the 
whole  grand  system  of  Christianity  will  be  reduced  down  to  that 
'simple'  religion,  desired  by  the  French  Director,  which  consisted 
of  'a  couple  of  doctrines,'  viz.:  the  existence  of  a  God,  and  the 
immortality  of  the  soul.  As  we  follow  the  history  of  Apologies 
down  to  the  present  day,  we  perceive  that  leading  minds  have 
been  supernaturalists  or  rationalists  in  their  methods  of  defend- 
ing and  philosophizing  upon  Christianity  according  as  they  have 
adopted  or  rejected  the  dictum  first  announced  by  Origen,  re- 
peated by  Augustine,  and  most  thoroughly  expanded  and  estab- 
lished by  Anselm — the  dictxim.,  Jides  precedit  intellectum.  In  the 
former  class,  we  find  the  names  of  Origen,  Augustine,  Anselm, 
Calvin,  Pascal.  In  the  latter  the  names  of  men  like  Scotus 
Erigena,  Abelard,    Raymond    Lully,   in  whom   the    speculative 


THE    FAITH    WHICH    IS    INDEPENDENT    OF    SCIENCE.  1 63 

energy  overmastered  the  contemplative,  and  whose  intuition  and 
construction  of  Christian  doctrine  was  inadequate,  and  in  some 
circumstances,  certainly,  fatally  defective." 

All  this  is  true  and  admirable.  But  still  the  question  arises, 
what  is  the  faith  which  must  precede  science?  If  it  be  merely 
the  faith  which  is  based  upon  the  natural  reason,  the  common 
consciousness,  then  the  science  resulting  will  not  corroborate 
the  Christian  faith.  If  it  be  faith  based  simply  on  the  testimony 
and  authority  of  the  visible  Church,  then  Protestants  would  not 
be  able  to  entertain  it;  and,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  it  has  uni- 
formly been  found  to  be  irreconcilable  with  science.  If  it  be 
personal  experience  of  faith — faith  produced  by  the  influence  of 
the  testimony  and  authority  of  the  Bible,  then  it  is  not  the  mere 
p-eneral  belief  in  divine  truth  which  has  been  described — even 
though  it  be  personal  faith — ^but  the  specific  faith,  involved  in 
the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  which  has  in  it  that  assurance, 
that  certainty  of  truth,  which  the  faith  must  have  that  can 
claim  to  be  independent  of  science,  and  that  must  precede  it. 
In  this  respect  justifying  faith  is  distinguished  from  mere  gen- 
eral Christian  faith  even  when  the  latter  is  based  upon  Scrip- 
tural testimony.  As  it  is  all-important  to  mark  the  distinction 
of  this  faith  out  of  which  the  Reformation  sprang — this  faith 
which  has  in  it  certainty  of  truth  as  the  basis  of  science,  the 
groundwork  of  theology — the  reader  will,  even  after  the  long 
extract  from  Dr.  Shedd,  indulge  me  in  another  from  Dr.  Dorner, 
in  which  he  describes  the  conflict  between  faith  and  science 
from  the  days  of  Anselm  down  to  the  Reformation :  "  The  ec- 
clesiastical dogma,  claiming  for  itself  unconditional  authority, 
is  neither  able  nor  willing  to  be  reconciled  to  the  demand  for 
personal  conviction  and  certainty.  This  appears  especially  in  the 
last  and  skeptical  period  of  scholasticism.  Inasmuch  as  the  sub- 
ject is  to  submit  passively  to  the  ecclesiastical  dogma,  as  a  law 
which  neither  needs  nor  allows  any  other  form  of  credibility  than 
that  afforded  by  the  divine  authority  of  the  Church,  there  was 
found  an  antagonism  between  the  intelligent  spirit  longing  for  cer- 
tainty, and  the  dark  and  opposing  power  of  tradition.  This  abject 
submission,  which  has  neither  certainty  in  itself  nor  adaptation  to 
become  the  principle  of  a  Christian  knowledge,  was  called  faith. 
Scholasticism  in  the  earlier  periods  sought  to  overcome,  in  the 
later,  to  conceal,  and  finally,  to  establish  this  dualism  upon  prin- 


164  PRINCIPLE   AND    DOCTRINE. 

ciple,  and  to  make  absolute  ignorance  the  basis  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical positivism.  Anselm  of  Canterbury  had  as  yet  placed  faith, 
that  is,  the  reception  of  the  objective,  ecclesiastical  dogma,  as 
first,  expecting  cognition  to  occur  subsequently,  as  the  result  of 
religious  experience.  Of  a  possible  antagonism  between  this 
experience,  or  the  knowledge  attainable  through  it,  and  the  ec- 
clesiastical doctrine,  he  has  no  suspicion.  Nor  does  he  inquire 
whether  the  reception  must  occur  consciously  and  as  recognized 
duty,  or  blindly.  For  he  proceeds  from  the  standpoint  of  a 
piety,  unshaken  and  undisturbed  by  doubt,  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  man  belonging  to  the  Church  from  his  youth,  and  who 
has  been  kept  morally  in  this  piety.  The  case  in  which  this  piety 
cannot  yet  be,  as  with  the  non-Christian  ;  or  where  it  is  no  more, 
as  with  the  skeptic — he  does  not  examine.  He  only  shows  in  a 
striking  manner,  that  the  historical  faith  must,  through  personal 
experience,  become  endued  with  certainty,  and  be  wedded  to 
knowledge.  In  this  way  he  thinks  that  the  conception  of  the 
object  of  faith  retains  its  right,  inasmuch  as,  though  it  was  re- 
ceived on  the  ground  of  mere  authority,  it  is  still  able  to  acquire 
certainty  of  its  truth.  To  Abelard,  on  the  other  hand,  it  seems 
necessary  first  of  all  to  knoiv  what  is  to  be  believed ;  in  general, 
because,  as  he  shows  with  great  profuseness  of  learning  in  his 
work  {sic  et  non),  that  the  ecclesiastical  faith  is,  in  many  import- 
ant points,  uncertain,  nay  inconsistent  in  itself;  but  especially,  be- 
cause that  only  is  to  be  believed  which  is  known  to  be  true. 
Hence  he  changes  the  formula  of  Anselm  :  I  believe  that  I  may 
know  (credo  tit  intelligani),  into  this  other :  I  know  that  I  may 
believe  {intclligo  ut  credam).  But  a  faith  which  receives  only 
what  is  proved  to  be  true,  is  nothing  but  the  consciousness  of 
the  evidence  accompanying  that  which  has  been  proved — the 
feeling  of  certainty  which  of  itself  accompanies  the  normal  pro- 
cess of  knowledge.  It  has  no  connection  with  the  religious 
feeling  and  life.  The  consciousness  of  certainty  or  evidence  is, 
according  to  Anselm,  produced  by  an  ethic o-religioits  experience  ; 
according  to  Abelard,  by  a  purely  intellectual  process.  As  cer- 
tainty is,  to  Abelard,  altogether  of  an  intellectual  nature  and  not 
at  all  of  a  religious  kind,  he  allows  no  essential  place  for  the  at- 
tainment of  personal  certainty  of  the  truth  of  Christianity.  The 
effect  of  experience  and  the  action  of  the  will  are  ignored.  Ac- 
cording to  his   principles  Christian  truth  would  have  to  be  de- 


WHAT    WAS    STILL    LACKING.  165 

monstrable  by  reason,  and,  consequently,  as  Christianity  would 
exist  already  in  the  universal  reason,  it  would  not  be  indispen- 
sable. His  rejection  by  the  Church  is,  therefore,  not  to  be  won- 
dered at;  but  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  this  rejection  left  un- 
answered the  question  how  any  others  than  those  yet  in  nonage 
could,  simply  by  the  authority  of  the  Church,  be  brought  in  a 
moral  way,  to  a  blind  subjection  to  the  content  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical doctrine.  Even  what  had  been  accorded  by  Anselm  to  the 
value  of  the  relatively  independent  knowledge  attainable  in  the 
way  of  personal  experience,  seemed  in  a  subsequent  period  to 
have  been  entirely  forgotten.  The  ecclesiastical  doctrine  would 
not  submit  to  the  test :  whether  it  could  make  itself  certain 
through  experience.  For  what  if  it  should  fail  to  make  itself 
certain,  but  on  the  contrary  should  call  forth  criticism  ?  It  was 
not,  therefore,  to  be  subjected  to  this  test.  No  wonder  that  the 
later  Scholasticism  constantly  returned  with  more  and  more 
distinctness  to  the  Church  as  the  only  supreme  authority ;  and 
that  it  labored  only  in  single  points  to  expound  more  fully,  to 
define  more  clearly,  or  to  accommodate  more  completely,  the 
ecclesiastical  doctrine  to  the  thinking  spirit,  as  is  done  especially 
by  Thomas  Aquinas." 

What  was  still  lacking  was  the  personal  assurance  of  faith — 
the  faith  which  has  in  it  the  certainty  of  truth.  The  certainty 
of  experience  and  the  corroboration  which  Anselm  expected 
and  required,  could  not  attend  upon  a  faith  resting  merely  on 
the  testimony  and  authority  of  the  Church,  nor  upon  a  mere 
general  Christian  faith  resting  upon  the  testimony  and  authority 
of  the  Bible  even  ;  for  such  a  faith,  while  it  is  not  superstitious 
but  intelligent,  has  in  it  an  element  of  knowledge — yet  it  has 
not  necessarily  certainty  of  knowledge.  It  may  still  be  attended 
more  or  less  by  the  uncertainty  of  the  determination  of  the 
speculative  intellect.  There  was  wanting,  consequently,  a  more 
specific  faith — a  faith  resting  not  merely  on  testimony,  but  also 
already  realized  in  personal  experience  ;  faith  in  the  great  centre 
of  truth,  Christ  alone  ;  justifying,  saving  faith,  which  has  in  it 
certaiiity  of  trutJi,  and  is  thus  distinguished  from  mere  general 
Christian  faith.  This  was  found  in  the  experience  of  Ltither  and 
announced  in  tJie  principle  of  the  Reformation.  The  truth,  which 
had  been  claimed  in  vain  by  the  Church  as  an  organism,  was 
now  apprehended  as  coming  with  self-evidencing poiver  to  the  in- 


1 66  PRINCIPLE    AND    DOCTRINE. 

dividual;  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  was  supposed  to  be  bestowed 
upon  the  visible  Church,  as  possessed  by  all  Christians,  who,  thus, 
are  the  true  Church.  With  the  gift  of  Christ  for  justification, 
is  conceived  to  be  connected  the  gift,  to  the  individual,  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  for  regeneration  and  sanctification.  This  Spirit, 
through  the  instrumentality  of  the  gospel,  produces  faith  and 
bears  witness  to  His  own  work ;  and,  thus,  gives  personal  assur- 
ance of  salvation,  and  inner  certainty  of  Christian  truth. 

This  is  the  faith  which  is  independent  t)f  science,  which  must 
precede  science,  and  zvhich  can  never  be  absorbed  in  science.  It 
will  be  satisfactory  and  profitable  now  to  select  a  few  of  the  ut- 
terances which  we  have  given  from  Luther  to  show  Jioxv  different 
in  nature  ajid  in  point  of  certainty  is  the  faith  zvhich  Liither  makes 
independent  of  all  human  authority  and  science :  "  I  have  believed 
and  therefore  have  I  spoken.  He  that  is  spiritual  judgetli  all 
things  and  is  judged  of  no  man.  All  believers  have  the  Holy 
Ghost.  To  deny  this  would  be  to  deny  the  faith  and  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  Thus  we  must  remain  free  judges,  that  we  have 
to  decide  and  judge.  But  if  we  receive  anything  it  must  be 
because  it  agrees  zvith  our  conscience  and  zvith  the  Scriptures. 
The  Holy  Scriptures  are  a  light  much  clearer  than  the  sun, 
especially  in  all  those  things  zvhich  are  necessary  for  a  Christian  to 
knozv  and  zvhich  are  conducive  to  salvation.  For  note  this  well, 
that  it  is  the  sheep  that  are  to  judge  what  is  proposed  to  them ; 
and  that  we  are  to  say,  we  have  Christ  for  our  Lord  and  His 
Word  in  spite  of  devils  and  men ;  and  that  the  sheep  hear  and 
know  what  is  the  true  voice.  Faith  does  not  come  from  the 
heart,  unless  it  has  the  Word  of  God,  This  my  Christ,  this  the 
Holy  Ghost  has  taught  me.  Bezvare  of  false  prophets :  from 
this  it  follows  clearly  that  I  may  decide  upon  doctrine.  Thou 
must  know  before  all  Councils  that  this  is  the  doctrine  of  Christ  : 
thou  canst  not  help  thyself;  Christ  is  thy  Saviour  who  effects 
that  thy  sins  are  forgiven.  Thou  must  know  and  acknowledge 
in  thy  heart  that  it  is  so  ;  and  if  thou  dost  not  feel  it,  thou  hast  not 
the  faith,  but  the  Word  hangs  on  thine  ear  and  rolls  on  thy 
tongue  like  the  bubble  upon  the  water.  If  thou  believest  thou 
hast  already  the  test,  the  standard,  the  rule  zuhereby  thou  canst 
judge  all  doctrines  of  the  fathers,  to  wit,  if  thou  knowest  that 
Christ  is  our  salvation,  that  He  governs  us,  and  that  we  are  sin- 
ners.    He  that  believeth  in  Christ  is  saved.     It   is  Christ  who 


THE    FAITH  WHICH    IS    INDEPENDENT    OF    SCIENCE.  1 6/ 

teacheth  thee  this  in  thy  heart.  Therefore  no  man  can  secure 
himself  against  error,  unless  he  he  a  spiriUial  man.  Therefore, 
thou  must  experience  in  thyself  that  thou  canst  say  :  God  has 
said  this  ;  that,  God  has  not  said.  There  is  no  judge  on  earth 
in  spiritual  matters  except  the  person  who  has  the  true  faith  in  his 
heaj't,  be  it  man  or  woman,  young  or  old,  servant  or  maid, 
learned  or  unlearned. 

"The  sheep _/^//^z£^  ]iim,for  they  know  His  voice,  but  a  stranget 
they  zuill  not  follozv,  but  flee  from  him,  for  they  know  not  the  voice 
of  strangers.  He  will  have  no  doctrine  or  dogma  held  unless  it 
be  proved  and  acknowledged  by  the  congregation  which  hears 
it ;  for  this  proving  belongs  not  to  the  teacher,  as  he  must  first 
speak  in  order  that  we  may  prove ;  thus  the  judging  is  taken 
from  the  teachers  and  given  to  the  disciples  among  Christians. 
He  that  is  of  God,  heareth  God's  Word ;  he  that  hcareth  it  not, 
is  not  of  God.  You  must  in  this  matter,  be  so  certain,  that  if  I 
myself  should  become  a  fool — which  may  God  forbid — and  deny 
my  doctrine,  yet  you  would  not  depart  from  it,  but  would  say  : 
If  even  Luther  himself  or  aji  angel  from  licavcn  should  preacli 
another  gospel,  let  him  be  accursed.  You  must  by  yoiirself  in  your 
conscience  feel  Christ  Himself,  and  luichangcably  experience  that  it 
is  God's  Word,  even  though  all  the  world  shoidd  speak  against  it. 
The  Master  teaches  in  the  heart.  Christ  brings  it  into  the  heart. 
This  is  the  consolation  which  we  have  from  the  gospel,  that  we 
know  that  comfort  is  to  be  found  nowhere  but  in  the  Scriptures 
and  God's  Word.  When  Paul  calls  the  gospel  the  office  of  the 
Spirit,  he  does  it  to  shozu  its  power  where  it  operates  quite  otherwise 
than  law  in  the  human  heart,  to  wit :  it  b)'ings  with  it  the  Holy 
Spirit  and  makes  a  nczv  heart,  elevates  the  heart  and  gives  it  con  fort. 
This  is  the  beautiful  promise  to  the  overwhelming  glory  of  Chris- 
tians, that  God  so  deeply  condescends  to  them,  operates  so  nearly 
to  them,  that  nowhere  else  but  in  and  through  them,  His  Word  and 
zvork  and  hand,  zuill  He  manifest  or  zvill  He  let  Himself  be  seen 
a?id  heard.  Thus  a  Christian  can  rejoice  with  truth  and  reason, 
and  say  :  /  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  makes  all  believers  holy. 
This  is  our  confidence,  we  with  great  reason  assuredly  say :  We 
are  holy,  and  among  each  other  holy  brethren  at  Wittenberg, 
Rome,  Jerusalem,  etc.  For  it  is,  indeed,  the  Holy  Ghost  who 
bestows  upon  you  Christ  and  His  holiness ;  and  works  faith  in 
you.     The  Scriptures  are  the  principal  light  and  of  all  others,  the 


It)8  PRINCIPLE   AND    DOCTRINE. 

clearest  and  the  most  certain.  As  with  philosophy,  no  man 
judges  concerning  universal  ideas,  but  all  other  ideas  are  deter- 
mined by  these  universal  truths  ;  so  also  it  is  zvitli  ns  concerning 
the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  zvJiicJi  judgeth  all  things  and  is  judged  of 
no  man.  And  of  this  I  must  be  as  certain  as  I  am  that  three  and 
two  make  five,  or  that  an  ell  is  longer  than  its  half  This  is  cer- 
tain ;  though  all  the  world  should  speak  against  it,  yet  I  know 
that  it  is  not  otherwise.  Who  determines  me  in  this  ?  No  man, 
but  the  truth  alone,  which  is  so  certain  that  no  man  can  deny 
it!  Our  understanding  without  any  deception  dictates  that 
seven  and  three  are  ten,  though  it  can  give  no  reason  why  this 
is  true;  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  it  is  true;  it  is  consequently 
itself  bound  in  that  it  is  more  determined  by  the  truth  than  the 
truth  by  it.  There  is  also  such  an  imderstanding  in  the  Church 
through  illumination  of  the  Spirit.  Where  the  faith  of  Christ  is, 
there  the  Holy  Ghost  effects  in  the  heart  such  comfort  and 
childlike  confidence.  The  witness  of  the  Spirit  is  precisely  this, 
that  our  heart  has  comfort,  confidence  and  filial  prayer.  That  we 
may  regard  ourselves  children  of  God,  we  have  not  of  ourselves 
nor  from  the  law,  but  it  is  the  Holy  Spirit's  zvitness,  who  against 
the  law  and  the  feeling  of  our  unworthiness,  bears  witness  in 
the  heart,  in  the  very  midst  of  our  infirmities,  gives  such  testi- 
mony and  makes  us  certain  of  it.  Here  I  stand ;  I  cannot  other- 
wise ;  God  help  me." 

This  is  the  more  specific  faith,  the  more  definite  experience, 
which  is  to  precede  science  according  to  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation.  It  is  personal  assurance  of  salvation,  the  experience 
of  justification  by  faith,  the  clearness  and  certainty  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  in  all  things  pertaining  to  the  salvation  of  the  soul,  in 
all  things  necessary  for  the  Christian  to  know,  and  consequently 
justification  by  faith  alone,  and  the  Sacred  Scriptures  as  the 
only  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  as  the  groundwork  which  must 
precede  science,  and  must  be  pre-supposed  by  the  system  of 
theology. 

§  3.  Its  Application  by  the  Reformers. 

The  importance  of  this  distinction  will  become  manifest  by  a 
glance  at  the  history  of  theology  since  the  Reformation.  At 
first  it  was  deeply  felt  and  ia  a  great  measure  observed  and  pre- 
■served  in  theological  thought  and  practice.     In  the  early  days 


OBSERVED    BY    LUTHER    AND    MELANCHTHON.  169 

of  the  Reformation,  justification  by  faith  and  the  clearness  and 
certainty  of  the  Scriptures  in  all  things  conducive  to  salvation 
were  treated  as  matters,  the  certainty  of  which  was  independent 
of  all  science ;  personal  assurance  of  salvation,  as  matter  of  ex- 
perience ;  saving  truth,  as  self-evidencing,  as  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation.  This  principle  was  treated  as  the  groundwork, 
the  animating  soul,  the  living  source  and  the  governing  spirit 
of  the  theological  system.  In  this  experimental  and  practical 
way  it  was  exhibited  by  Luther  and  Melanchthon  in  the  blessed 
first  days  of  the  Reformation.  justification  was  treated  as 
assured  by  the  experience  of  faith,  and  the  ''gospel,"  which  they 
considered  the  revelation  of  "  the  manner  in  which  we  are  to  be 
justified,"  they  proclaimed  as  capable  of  being  "  understood  by 
ally  This  was  the  great  groundwork  of  their  thoughts,  and  its 
substance  was  not  only  independent  of  science ;  but  it  almost 
superseded  all  system.  Their  operations  were  mainly  practical. 
So  far  as  they  did  systematize,  all  theoretical  views  were  either 
neglected,  left  out  of  the  system,  or  if  they  were  admitted,  they 
were  kept  in  close  connection  with  the  experience  of  the  cer- 
tainty of  salvation. 

While  Luther  was  preaching  justification  by  faith,  as  the  ex- 
pression of  experimental  Christianity,  the  certainty  of  the  for- 
giveness of  sin  and  of  adoption  into  the  family  of  God,  Me- 
lanchthon was,  in  the  same  spirit,  preparing  his  Loci  Communes. 
He  places  the  momentum  of  religion  as  revived  in  his  day  in 
the  saving  work  of  Christ,  in  experimental  Christianity ;  and 
while  he  recognizes,  for  example,  the  doctrines  concerning  God, 
the  unity  of  God,  creation,  as  proper  topics  in  the  theological 
system,  yet  in  the  first  edition  of  his  work,  he  does  not  see  any 
"  reason  why  we  should  devote  ourselves  to  these  most  lofty 
subjects — the  doctrines  concerning  God,  concerning  the  Unity 
of  God,  concerning  the  Trinity  of  the  Godhead,  concerning  the 
mystery  of  Creation,  concerning  the  mode  of  the  Incarnation." 
He  does  not  think  that  much  good  has  resulted  from  the  Scho- 
lastics having  exercised  themselves  for  so  many  ages  upon  these 
topics  ;  and  that  we  should  be  engaged  more  in  the  cognition 
of  the  benefits  of  Christ  than  in  the  contemplation  of  His 
nature  and  the  mode  of  His  incarnation.  This  is  no  evidence 
that  he  did  not  appreciate  the  importance  of  the  doctrines  con- 
cerning Christianity ;  for  he  afterwards,  in   later  editions,  enters 


I/O  PRINCIPLE   AND    DOCTRINE. 

upon  the  discussion  of  them,  and  even  attempts  a  construction 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  from  the  divine  self-consciousness. 
But  it  shows  how  deeply  he  felt  the  distinction  between  justifica- 
tion by  fait  J  I  as  a  principle,  and  Justification  by  faith  as  a  doctrine; 
between  the  fact,  and  the  doctrine  concerning  the  fact ;  between 
Christianity  as  principle  and  life,  and  Christianity  as  doctrine. 
Thus,  did  t lie  first  theological  zvork  of  the  Reformation  distinguisJi 
tlie  gro2indivork  from  the  system. 

In  the  same  way  did  the  Reformers,  nine  years  after,  make 
their  profession  of  faith  in  the  Augsburg  Confession.  They  in- 
sert no  article  on  the  clearness  and  certainty,  the  intelligibility 
and  inspiration  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  as  did  the  later  creeds, 
especially  those  of  the  Reformed  Church.  Whence  this  omis- 
sion ?  Certainly  not  from  a  want  of  due  appreciation  of  them, 
but  from  the  sense  of  their  clearness  and  certainty,  as  independ- 
ent of  science,  as  belonging,  consequently,  to  the  groundwork 
more  than  to  the  system  of  the  creed  and  of  theology.  And,  in 
like  spirit,  they  make  justification,  not  so  much  a  doctrine,  as 
the  determining  principle  of  the  entire  system  of  Christian  truth. 
It  is  the  central  point  which,  as  a  principle,  directs  and  controls 
the  entire  arrangement  of  the  structure ;  making  the  doctrines 
oi  God,  of  Original  Sin,  of  the  Son  of  God,  come  first  as  nec- 
essarily pre-supposed  by  the  fact  that  we  are  justified  by  faith  in 
Christ  alone.  And  then  they  exhibit  the  doctrines  concerning 
the  origination  of  faith,  concerning  its  objective  conditions,  con- 
cerning its  preservation,  as  consequents  necessarily  following 
from  the  great  central  fact  of  the  certainty  of  justification,  peace 
with  God  and  the  hope  of  eternal  life  through  faith  in  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Justification  by  faith  alone,  is  distinct,  in  their 
minds,  from  the  doctrines  concerning  justification,  and  the  doc- 
trines concerning  faith,  and  is  regarded  as  the  groundwork  of  all 
doctrinal  conceptions.  And  so  far  as  justification  enters  into  the 
system  it  is  as  the  substance,  in  view  of  their  relations  to  which 
all  doctrines  must  be  discussed ;  and  hence  the  entire  weight  of 
all  the  discussions,  rests  upon  the  relation  of  faith  to  the  free 
grace  of  God  to  the  gratuitous  atonement  made  by  Christ;  and 
upon  the  consequences  of  justification  by  faith — upon  the  true 
Christian  idea  of  works,  the  Church,  etc.  It  was  the  confession 
of  experimental  religion,  of  the  gospel  as  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth,  around  which  everything, 


EFFECTS    OF   THE    NEGLECT    OF    THE    DISTINCTION.  lyi 

in  the  statement  and  arrangement  of  doctrines,  is  made   to  re- 
volve. 

§  4.  T/ie  Sad  Effects  of  the  Deviation  from  it. 
Just  in  proportion  as  justification  by  faith  ceased  to  be  treated 
as  matter  of  experience,  its  importance  in  the  theological  system 
was  dinnnislied.  At  first,  even  when  transformed  from  a  princi- 
ple to  a  mere  doctrine,  and  transferred  from  the  groundwork  to 
the  system, — it  still,  for  some  time,  occupied  a  prominent  place 
in  the  system ;  but  having  once  been  made  more  a  question  of 
intellectual  apprehension  than  of  experience  in  consciousness,  it 
soon  began  to  be  placed, — even  by  theologians  who  by  no  means 
meant  to  undervalue  its  importance, — in  a  position  of  less  and 
less  prominence,  until  it  came,  at  length,  to  be  among  the  last 
topics  in  the  system.  Just  in  proportion  as  deep  personal  ex- 
perience of  justification  declined,  and  it  began  to  be  regarded 
not  as  the  gospel,  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation,  not  as  a 
principle  but  as  a  doctrine  co-ordinate  with  other  doctrines,  its 
original  prominence  in  the  theological  system  disappeared.  The 
tendency  was  to  turn  the  attention  azvay  from  Clirist,  to  faith  in 
certain  doctrinal  propositions,  and  to  make  salvation  depend  upon 
the  acceptance  of  the  '^ pure  doctrine  ;"  to  turn  the  attention  of  men 
away  from  the  necessity  and  practicability  of  personal  assurance 
of  salvation,  of  conscious  experience  of  the  saving  pozver  of  the 
gospel,  to  mysterious,  magical  operations  of  the  Word  and  sacra- 
ments. Thus  it  was,  at  length,  really  depreciated.  Declining 
from  the  religious  life  of  the  Reformation,  and  striving  to  bring 
the  mysteries  of  faith  within  the  grasp  of  the  mere  understand- 
ing, to  put  them  into  the  forms  and  connections  of  mere  abstract 
logic,  theology  neglected  the  living  knowledge  which  is  an  ele- 
ment so  essential  in  saving  faith.  It  departed  from  the  princi- 
ple of  the  Reformation,  that  the  truth  has  vital  relations  to  the 
human  soul,  and  comes  to  it  in  ways  other  than  mere  speculative 
apprehension  and  logical  formulas,  and  it  thus  became  as  unsci- 
entific as  it  was  unspiritual  and  powerless  for  the  salvation  of 
men.  While  blindly  secure  in  its  intellectualism  and  haughtily 
neglecting  the  experience  of  life,  it  came  into  conflict  with 
earnest,  experimental,  practical  Christianity,  and  its  "  pure  doc- 
trine," separated  from  the  Christian  consciousness,  from  the  gospel 
as  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation,  soon  became  helpless  before 
the  understanding  which  judges  only  according  to   sense — be- 


1/2  PRINCIPLE    AND    DOCTRINE. 

fore  the  logical  powers,  now  no  longer  influenced  by  a  spiritual 
disposition,  but  by  a  secular  mind. 

The  question  of  the  certainty  of  truth  in  religion  having  be- 
come a  purely  intellectual  one;  and  the  theory  of  theology  having 
separated  speculative  apprehension  from  conscious  experience, 
and  transferred  the  appropriation  of  saving  truth  from  the  testi- 
mony of  consciousness  entirely  to  the  forms  of  the  understand- 
ing— having  lost  its  vital  power  and  enforced  its  forms  as  a  mere 
external  authority — it  came  into  conflict  with  the  intellect  of 
Christendom.  The  thinking  mind,  now  destitute  of  experimental 
assurance,  and  yet  asking  for  inner  certainty  of  truth,  and  rebel- 
ling against  the  requirement  to  be  satisfied  with  mere  external 
authority, yt7/  into  rationalism.  The  thinking  mind,  still  acting 
under  the  impulse  given  by  the  Reformation  to  the  desire  for 
inner  certainty,  but  now  alienated  from  the  sense  of  dependence 
upon  experience  in  religion,  instead  of  beginning  with  the  facts 
of  the  Christian  consciousness,  with  the  Christian  faith  as  it 
authenticates  itself  to  the  sincere  inquirer  after  saving  truth,  to 
the  soul  longing  for  certainty  of  truth — inakes  it  a  purely  intel- 
lectual question.  It  begins  zvith  universal  doubt  instead  of  experi- 
mental faith. 

The  first  answer  thus  given  to  the  inquiry  after  the  inner 
grounds  of  certainty,  was  derived  from  the  Cartesian  Philosophy, 
to  wit,  that  clearness  and  distinctness  are  the  criteria  of  the 
truth  of  our  ideas.  This  was  more  fully  developed  in  the  Leib- 
nitz-Wolfian  school,  which  introduced  a  demonstrative  method 
into  the  sphere  of  theology.  All  religious  truths  were  now  to 
be  demonstrated.  But  in  this  effort  to  reconcile  personal  con- 
viction with  the  ecclesiastical  doctrines,  the  objective  dogmas 
were  more  and  more  modified  by  the  demands  of  the  mere 
logical  understanding.  With  some  this  demonstrative  method 
seemed  to  be  consistent  with  positive  Christianity ;  with  others, 
it  ended  in  Rationalistic  Deism.  And  when  the  men  of  deeper 
piety  and  more  positive  faith — feeling  deeply  convinced  that  a 
mere  natural  religion  affords  no  certain  hope  of  salvation — 
adopted  a  supernaturalistic  view  of  religion,  it  became  manifest 
in  due  time  that  having,  in  their  method,  departed  from  the  facts 
of  Christian  experience  as  the  groundwork,  and  occupying 
common  ground  with  its  opponents,  they  could  not  successfully 
maintain  the  claims  of  Christianity  as  a  special  revelation.     The 


RESULTS    OF    MERE    INTELLECTUALISM.  1/3 

understanding  having  cut  loose  from  experience  in  religion, 
tends  not  to  confirm  and  establish,  but  to  undermine  and  destroy 
belief  in  all  supernatural  interpositions.  It  cannot  in  any 
of  its  mere  connecting  operations  find  the  link  which  unites 
Christianity  with  religion  in  general,  and  instead  of  corroborat- 
ing, it  will  deny  the  claims  of  a  special  revelation.  And  as  men 
could  not  find  certainty  of  truth  and  satisfy  the  yearning  of  the 
heart  after  assurance  in  either  the  rationalistic  or  the  supernatu- 
ralistic  theology,  and  yet  were  still  urged  onward  in  the  pursuit, 
new  tendencies  were  originated. 

The  first  of  these  may  be  called  philosophical  theology.  The 
Critical  Philosophy  of  Kant  having  subjected  the  sources  and 
grounds  of  knowledge  to  a  critical  analysis,  declared  the  Carte- 
sian principle  that  clearness  is  the  criterion  of  truth,  to  be  a 
mere  assumption ;  that  reason  has  no  speculative  capacity  to 
apprehend,  decide  or  prove  anything  in  the  question  concerning 
the  existence  of  supernatural  realities  ;  and  that  faith  in  God 
and  immortality  is  a  mere  postulate  of  what  he  calls  the  practi- 
cal reason.  Thus  religion  became  only  the  recognition  of  the 
"categorical  imperative" — of  the  behest  of  the  practical  reason 
as  the  command  of  God.  The  Egoistic  Philosophy  of  Fichte,  in 
endeavoring  to  evolve  the  results  of  the  practical  reason,  recog- 
nized in  the  Critical  Philosophy,  from  the  self-consciousness, 
removed  the  possibility  of  revelation  as  well  as  of  faith  in  a 
personal  God  and  a  personal  immortality  of  the  soul ;  and  left 
for  religion,  only  faith  in  a  moral  order  of  the  world,  only  faith 
in  a  God  who  is  conceived  to  be  identical  with  the  moral  life  and 
actions  of  men.  The  Identity-Philosophy  of  Schelling,  in  en- 
deavoring to  remedy  the  failure  of  the  Egoistic  Idealism — in  the 
attempt  to  develop  nature  from  spirit — assumed  an  intellectual 
intuition  of  the  absolute  as  being  neither  subjective  nor  object- 
ive, neither  spirit  nor  nature,  but  the  absolute  identity  of  the 
two.  But  this  co-ordination  of  nature  and  spirit,  and  this  appre- 
hension of  God  as  the  mere  indifference-point  of  the  two,  could 
not  be  maintained  on  scientific,  any  more  than  on  religious 
grounds.  Meanwhile,  the  Absolute  Idealism  of  Hegel,  discov- 
ering the  insufficiency  of  the  doctrine  of  identity,  both  in  its 
assuming  an  intellectual  intuition  of  the  Absolute  and  in  its 
making  the  Absolute  the  point  of  indifference  between  nature 
and  spirit,  put,  instead  of  the  identity,  the  idea  itself — no  spec- 


174  PRINCIPLE    AND    DOCTRINE. 

tator  to  cognize,  no  being  to  be  cognized — nothing  but  the  idea 
itself  in  its  necessary  logical  evolution,  unconsciously  in  nature, 
consciously  in  man  ;  and  developing  itself  into  self-consciousness 
in  the  universal  sphere  of  art,  religion,  and  philosophy; — thus 
making  religion  only  a  lower  form  of  knowledge,  a  mere  tem- 
porary phenomenon,  destined  to  pass  away  as  philosophy  ad- 
vances. Thus  has  this  intellectualism  not  only  failed  to  confirm 
and  establish  the  certainty  of  the  truth  of  revealed  religion  ;  but 
it  has  even  destroyed  the  foundations  of  all  religious  truth  ;  in- 
troducing a  pantheism  which  is  destructive  of  all  grounds  of 
moral  obligation  and  of  all  spiritual  worship  ;  culminating  in  a 
Strauss  in  the  denial  of  all  personality  in  God,  and  in  a  Feuer- 
bach  in  reducing  all  theology  to  anthropology — in  making  man 
God.  It  has  come,  consequently,  into  such  utter  antagonism 
with  the  Christian  faith  and  the  plain  teachings  of  the  Bible, 
that  it  has  lost  its  hold  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  all  truly 
Christian  men.  And,  in  its  later  developments,  it  has  become 
consciously  inimical  to  Christianity ;  and  it  7tow  recognizes  itself 
to  be,  in  scientific  developjnent  and  form,  the  old  heathen  idea  of 
God  and  the  xvorld. 

§  5.  Its  Continuous  Preservation  and  Its  Revival  by  the  Pietists. 
The  entire  result  shows  the  necessity  of  the  ground  of  assur- 
ance of  salvation,  as  it  is  established  by  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation ;  and  upon  which  the  Reformers  were  perfectly 
agreed,  notwithstanding  the  difference  of  their  views  on  various 
doctrines  of  the  system.  Melanchthon,  with  his  ethical  nature 
and  practical  tendency,  was,  indeed,  the  complement  of  Luther 
in  the  work  of  maintaining  and  exhibiting  the  groundwork  of 
the  creed  and  theology.  His  views,  as  they  came  to  light  in  the 
controversy  with  the  Antinomians,  and  in  the  later  editions  of 
his  Loci  Communes  and  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  were,  in 
the  former  case,  positively  endorsed  by  Luther,  and,  in  the  lat- 
ter, they  were  well  understood  and  tolerated  by  him.  And,  in- 
deed, the  Loci  thus  modified,  and  the  Augsburg  Confession  thus 
altered,  were  universally  used  by  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
churches  for  the  first  twenty  years  after  the  Reformation.  They 
were  views  which  tended  especially  to  the  maintenance  of  per- 
sonal, conscious  experience  in  regeneration  and  sanctification,  and 
of  the  experimental  and  practical  character  of  Christianity  gen- 


THE    DISTIN'CTION    REVIVED    BY    THE    PIETISTS.  1/5 

erally.  And  although,  after  Luther's  death,  they  were  in  a  great 
measure  suppressed  by  the  prevalent  party,  they  were  still 
operative  in  the  Church.  The  liberal  and  practical  views  of 
Melanchthon,  which  were  really  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  deep 
mystical  spirit  of  Luther,  were  never  entirely  lost  from  the 
Church.  While  most  of  the  theologians  devoted  their  energies 
to  the  formal  and  polemic  statement  of  particular  doctrines  of 
the  system  as  strictly  Lutheran,  to  the  neglect  of  the  experi- 
mental and  practical  relations  of  saving  truth  as  they  are  mani- 
fest in  the  principle  of  the  Reformation ;  there  were  never 
wanting  men  who  sought  to  direct  attention  more  especially  to 
the  experimental,  as  an  essential  element  in  the  groundwork  of 
theology,  men  who  maintained  the  rights  of  the  spirit  against 
the  mere  form  of  the  letter.  As  an  Arndt  developed  the  inner 
elements  of  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  justification  in  its  inde- 
pendence of  scholastic  formulae,  so  a  Calixtus  constructed  the- 
ology according  to  the  liberal  views  and  practical  tendencies  of 
the  Melanchthonian  spirit.  "Arndt's  True  Christianity,"  and  the 
works  of  Scriver,  Miller  and. others,  kept  alive  the  interest  for 
experimental  piety,  for  conscious  experience  in  distinction  from 
the  supposed  mysterious  or  magical  effects  of  the  Word  and 
sacraments.  While  the  thinking  mind — when  the  question  of 
the  certainty  of  truth  was,  by  the  scholastic  theology,  made  a 
mere  intellectual  question — rebelled  against  its  authority  and 
took  the  form  of  Rationalism, — the  religious  spirit,  in  the  form  of 
Pietism,  came  into  conflict  zuith  it  also  ;  zvith  this  difference,  however, 
that  the  latter  was  a  return  to  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation,  and 
to  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  as  the  soitrcc  of  the  certainty  of  trutli  and 
salvation.  It  was  a  revival  of  the  principle  of  the  Reformation, 
a  return  to  the  fact  of  justification  by  faith,  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  necessity  of  experimental  religion,  of  personal  assurance 
of  salvation  through  inner  conscious  experience.  Its  tendency 
was  to  undermine  the  unconditional  authority  of  creeds  and 
systems  of  theology,  to  turn  men  from  the  superstructure  to  the 
foundation,  from  the  symbols  to  the  Bible.  In  its  practical  ten- 
dencies it  maintained  the  position  that  the  gospel  is  not  only 
doctrine  but  life.  It  expended  little  energy  and  time  in  the  mei^ 
formulation  of  doctrines,  but  labored  abundantly,  in  the  light  of 
the  divine  Word  and  of  experimental  religion,  to  bring  forth  in 
the  life  the  practical  elements  of  the  doctrinal  formulae.     In  its 


lyC  PRINCIPLE    AND    DOCTRINE, 

more  scientific  representatives,  it  called  attention  to  the  historical 
element  in  the  doctrines  of  the  Church;  thus  liberating  them 
more  and  more  from  the  fixed  and  dead  forms  of  the  creed,  and 
committing  them  to  the  living  determination  of  Scripture  and 
experience.  It  has,  indeed,  been  charged  with  being  the  fore- 
runner of  Rationalism.  "  The  relation  of  Pietism  to  Rational- 
ism has  often  in  recent  times,"  says  Auberlen,  "  been  spoken  of 
as  that  of  the  forerunner,  since  it  broke  the  objective  power  of 
the  Church  doctrine,  and  opened  the  door  to  a  one-sided  sub- 
jectivism. This  opinion  is  as  true  and  as  false,  as  that  which 
makes  Protestantism  the  forerunner  of  Rationalism.  Those 
who  cling  to  the  old — in  the  one  case,  the  Catholics ;  in  the 
other,  the  modern  friends  of  the  Old  Protestant  Church  systems — 
are  always  disposed  to  make  the  good,  which  is  also  the  new, 
responsible  for  the  bad  which  may  be  in  the  new.  The  revival 
of  the  orthodox  opposition  to  Pietism  has,  therefore,  been  criti- 
cized and  considered  in  what  we  have  already  said  of  the  cor- 
responding view  of  Protestantism.  The  true  history  of  the 
matter  is  as  follows.  As  there  was  a  two-fold  opposition  to 
Catholicism,  that  of  skepticism  and  that  of  living  faith,  the 
humanistic  and  the  Reformation  in  the  sixteenth  century;  so 
against  the  Church  and  state  orthodoxy  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, Eijose  the  Rationalistic  and  the  Pietistic  opposition.  Both 
insisted  on  practical  religion  in  opposition  to  one-sided  dogma- 
tism ;  but  one  party  found  it  in  the  so-called  natural  religion, 
the  other  in  a  living,  active  Christianity,  which  is  the  root  of  the 
theology  of  spiritual  men.  Humanism  was  older  than  the  Ref- 
ormation, and  Rationalism  was  older  than  Pietism.  English 
Deism,  the  father  of  modern  Rationalistic  negation,  began  its 
work  long  before  Pietism.  Herbert  of  Cherbury,  who  first  pro- 
mulgated the  idea  of  natural  religion,  died  as  early  as  1648, 
when  Spener  was  only  thirteen  years  of  age. 

"At  the  same  time  Pietism  had,  like  Protestantism,  a  formal 
relation  to  Rationalism,  and  outwardly  paved  the  way  for  the 
spread  of  it,  through  the  fact  that  it  laid  stress  above  all  things 
upon  a  subjective  experience,  and  granted  a  freer  movement  of 
the  mind  than  the  authority  of  the  Church  had  allowed.  It 
must  further  be  admitted,  that  the  Church  and  her  ordinances 
were  and  are  in  many  ways  misunderstood  and  neglected,  not, 
indeed,  by  the  fathers  of   Pietism,  but  in  pietistic  circles.     But 


DEFECT    IN    THE    PIETISTIC    APPREHENSION.  1 77 

Rationalism  also,  because  of  its  one-sided  direction  of  the  un- 
derstanding, stands  essentially  nearer  to  orthodoxy  than  to  Piet- 
ism, just  as,  through  its  fundamental  Pelagian  view,  it  stands 
nearer  to  Catholicism  than  to  Protestantism.  The  "  religion  of 
thought  "  is  more  closely  related  to  the  mere  faith  of  the  head 
than  to  the  faith  of  the  heart.  At  any  rate,  the  modern  worldly 
spirit  is  most  completely  antagonistic  to  Pietism  with  its  tend- 
ency to  flee  from  the  world.  '  Only  as  in  all  other  extremes,' 
say  we  with  Delitsch,  '  not  as  the  inevitable  result  of  Pietism,  is 
Rationalism  to  be  understood.'  Pietism  has  been  opposed  to 
Rationalism  from  the  very  beginning,  and  this  opposition  be- 
came more  decisive  as  Pietism  was  further  developed  theolog- 
ically by  Bengel ;  and  Oetinger,  with  his  scholars,  furnishes  us 
with  the  most  important  elements  for  the  refutation  of  Rational- 
ism by  a  scientific  method." 

§  6.  TJic  Defect  in  the  Pictistic  Apprehension. 
The  Pietistic  movement  was,  indeed,  a  return  to  the  Reforma- 
tion, a  revival  of  the  principles  and  method  of  Luther  as  com- 
plemented by  Melanchthon ;  and,  consequently,  it  forms  an  epoch 
in  the  history  of  theology.  It  once  more  insisted  upon  the  fact 
that  the  Scriptures  are  sure  and  certain — intelligible  in  every- 
thing necessary  to  salvation — and  that  they  are  a  sufficient  guide 
in  the  way  of  life  ;  a  truth  theoretically  recognized  before,  but 
greatly  neglected  in  practice.  It  proclaimed  anew  the  universal 
priesthood  of  Christians,  and  the  right  and  duty  of  the  individ- 
ual in  matters  pertaining  to  the  salvation  of  the  soul — an  ele- 
ment of  the  Reformation  w^hich  had  been  greatly  repressed.  It 
led  men  to  study  anew  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  especially  for 
spiritual  edification,  and  to  seek  that  spiritual  cognition  of 
divine  truth,  which  is  inseparable  from  the  experience  of  its 
power  to  promote  holiness  of  heart  and  life;  to  feel  that  to 
understand  the  new  relation  of  sonship  with  God,  they  must, 
by  receiving  Christ,  have  the  power  given  to  them  to  become 
actually  the  sons  of  God.  It  insisted  that  men  must  have  per- 
sonal experience  of  the  things  revealed  in  the  Bible;  that  they 
must  believe  that  they  may  know;  that  they  must  feel  the 
truths  of  the  Scriptures  in  order  truly  to  understand  them  ;  and 
that  then  only  are  they  really  in  possession  of  the  materials  with 
which  to  constitute  their  creed  or  their  theological  system.    But 


178  PRINCIPLE    AND    DOCTRINE. 

in  its  effort  to  preserve  the  unity  of  experience  and  speculation, 
of  experimental  and  scientific  knowledge,  it  does  no^  sn^cu  nf/y 
distinguisJi  llic  simple  CJiristian  consciousness  from  the  purely 
scientific  appreJiension  of  the  truths  derived  from  the  study  of  the 
Bible.  It  taught  rather  the  gejieral  faith  and  experience  incid- 
cated  by  Augustine  and  Anselm  as  necessarily  preceding  science, 
than  the  specific  faith  and  experience,  the  personal  assurance  of 
salvation  through  faith,  the  inner  conscious  experience  of  the 
gospel  as  the  poiver  of  God  unio  salvation  to  the  believer,  insisted 
upon  by  Luther  and  Melanchthon.  It  did  not  sufficiently  distin- 
guish the  specific  experience,  the  experience  of  the  saving  truth, 
from  the  experience  of  Biblical  truth  in  general;  the  experience 
of  acceptance  with  God  in  Christ,  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  from 
general  Christian  experience  of  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures,  the 
experience  of  that  ivhich  belongs  to  the  groundzvork  in  which  there 
is  personal  co^tainty,  from  the  experience  respecting  the  materials 
of  the  system  ivhich  is  inseparable  from  the  uncertainty  of  mere 
intellect;  the  experience  of  personal  assurance  of  salvation 
through  faith,  from  the  experience  of  the  truth  and  power  of 
doctrines  concerning  that  sure  experience  and  that  saving  faith. 
Saving  faith  includes  elements  other  than  knowledge,  such  as 
feeling  and  volition;  and,  consequently,  the  knowledge  in  saving 
faith,  elements  other  than  mere  Biblical  knowledge,  than  the 
knowledge  attained  by  the  intellectual  investigation  of  the 
Scriptures.  The  distinction  lies  in  this,  that  faith  on  the  one 
hand  includes  subjectively  elements  of  feeling  and  volition  in 
addition  to  elements  of  knowledge,  and  thus  more  than  mere 
Biblical  knowledge;  and  that,  on  the  other  hand.  Biblical 
knowledge  contains  objectively  much  which  does  not  and  can- 
not enter  into  the  experience  of  saving  faith,  elements  which 
transcend  all  experience,  and  which  are  believed  on  the  testi- 
mony of  God  without  experience,  and  thus  in  this  respect 
includes  more  than  the  knowledge  which  is  in  saving  faith, 
more  than  belongs  to  the  experience  of  the  certainty  of  salva- 
tion. The  point  of  their  union  is,  that  the  knowledge  involved 
in  the  experience  of  faith — no  matter  in  what  form  it  has  come 
to  the  heart  of  the  believer — is  also  found  in  the  Bible ;  that  the 
one  is  corroborated  by  the  other.  Subjective  faith  is  confirmed 
by  objective  faith;  the  experience  of  salvation  produced  by  the 
gospel  as  the  proclamation  of  the  pardoning  mercy  and  grace 


DOES    NOT   SUFFICIENTLY    DISTINGUISH.  1 79 

of  God,  is  verified  by  the  inspired  record  of  this  revelation  of 
the  scheme  of  redemption.  The  personal,  specific  experience 
of  peace  with  God,  is  confirmed  by  the  Scriptures.  We  cannot 
experience  the  certainty  of  all  divine  truth;  but  we  can  experience 
the  certainty  of  the  power  of  Christ  to  save  the  soul.  The 
testimony  of  the  Spirit,  personal  certainty  of  salvation,  accord- 
ing to  Luther,  "takes  place  in  this  way,  namely:  that,  as  the 
Spirit  works  in  7{s  through  the  Word,  we  feel  and  become  conscious 
of  His  power ;  and  our  experience  corresponds  %vith  the  Word  or 
declaration  of  the  gospel."  This  experience  is  practicable  and  certain 
in  saving  faith,  but  it  docs  not  necessarily  extend  to  all  the  doc- 
trines contained  in  the  Bible.  The  subjective  idea  developed 
from  the  Christian  consciousness  or  saving  faith  is  in  correla- 
tion with  the  objective  law  derived  from  an  exposition  of  the 
Sacred  Scriptures.  The  centre  and  the  object  of  both,  of  the 
experience  in  saving  faith  and  of  Biblical  knowledge,  is  Christ; 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  a?ithor  of  both  faith  and  the  Bible. 
But  each  of  them  contains  elements  which  the  other  does  not. 
The  experience  of  faith  could  be  conceived  to  exist  in  the  ab- 
sence of  the  Bible,  and  actually  did  exist  before  the  New  Testa- 
ment was  written ;  but,  as  we  have  seen,  it  seeks  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  as  its  rule,  and  needs  them  as  its  constant  corrective 
in  the  midst  of  the  infirmity  and  depravity  of  the  human  heart, 
as  the  inexhaustible  source  of  its  preservation,  purity  and 
growth.  They  are  united,  but  not  commensurate.  They  are 
in  some  measure  independent  of  each  other,  so  far  as  their 
existence  is  concerned,  and  yet  they  are  inseparably  connected ; 
the  Bible  looking  for  the  realization  of  its  contents  in  the  inner 
experience  of  the  new  man  in  Christ;  and  the  experience  of 
faith  seeking  the  Sacred  Scriptures  as  the  only  sure  verification 
of  the  objective  certainty  of  the  gospel  which  has  produced  it. 
The  great  distinction  of  the  Reformation,  is  that  it  makes  this 
experience  of  personal  salvation,  the  experience  whicJi  empliatically 
and  uniquely  has  assurance  and  certainty  in  it,  in  contradistinc- 
tion from  mere  general  Christian  experience,  the  experience  that 
precedes  science.  It  teaches  us  to  agree  with  Anselm,  "That 
we  must  believe  that  we  may  know;"  with  the  Pietists,  "That 
personal  experience,  or  feeling-perception,  must  precede  all  true 
knowledge  of  the  things  of  revelation ;  that  the  doctrines  of  the 
Bible  must  be  felt  in  order  to  be  truly  understood,  have  root  in 


l8o  PRINCIPLE    AND    DOCTRINE. 

the  heart,  before  they  can  be  rightly  apprehended  by  the  under- 
standing." It  would  teach  us  to  accept  the  declaration  of 
Pascal:  "That  divine  things  are  infinitely  above  nature,  and  God 
only  can  place  them  in  the  soul;  that  He  has  designed  that 
they  shall  pass  from  the  heart  into  the  head,  and  not  from  the 
head  into  the  heart;  and  that  while  it  is  necessary  to  know 
human  things  in  order  to  love  them,  it  is  necessary  to  love 
divine  things  in  order  to  know  them."  But  in  addition  to  this, 
it  would  have  us  fix  our  mind  upon  the  definite  and  distinct 
experience  in  savijig  fiaith  as  having  in  it  knowledge,  divinely  re- 
vealed knowledge ,  the  zvitness  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and,  conse- 
quently, assurance  of  salvation  and  certainty  of  truth  ;  and  to  feel 
that  in  this  we  know  what  no  creature — not  even  an  angel  from 
heaven — can  contradict,  and  wliat  God  never  will  contradict. 

§  7.  Its  Scientific  Exhibition  by  Schleiermacher. 
This  distinction, — first  apprehended  in  fact  and  announced  by 
Luther  in  his  great  principle  of  the  Reformation, — was  scien- 
tifically apprehended  and  defined  by  Schleiermacher,  and,  conse- 
quently, his  theology  of  the  Christian  consciousness  has  given 
an  impulse,  toward  a  return  to  the  Reformation,  to  all  the  evan- 
gelical thought  of  modern  times.  To  Schleiermacher,  notwith- 
standing his  errors  and  heresies  in  other  respects,  belongs  the 
immortal  honor  of  having  clearly  indicated  the  erroneousness  of 
a  method  of  theologizing  prevalent  in  all  parties  of  the  Church ; 
of  having  first  in  modern  times  clearly  and  scientifically  recog- 
nized the  inseparable  connection  of  systematic  theology  with  a 
living  faith.  While  the  orthodox  party  sought  to  deduce  the 
system  of  faith  from  some  doctrine  or  doctrines  of  revealed 
truth,  without  regarding  the  vital  connection  of  the  gospel  with 
the  soul  as  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation,  and,  consequently, 
without  recognizing  personal  assurance  of  salvation  through 
faith  as  the  groundwork ;  while  the  Rationalistic  and  Philosoph- 
ical Theologians  sought  to  deduce  the  Christian  faith  itself  from 
some  ultimate  ground  in  human  knowledge,  he  started  from  the 
fundamental  feeling  in  man — the  feeling  of  absolute  dependence, 
and  defined  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  redemption — the  de- 
liverance of  the  God -consciousness  from  the  bondage  of 
nature,  through  the  life  which  proceeds  from  the  person  of 
Christ — making  the   consciousness   of  sin  and   grace,  of  living 


THEOLOGY    MUST    BE    EXPOSITION    OF    REALITIES.  l8l 

fellowship  with  Christ,  the  Redeemer,  the  antecedent  to  system- 
atic theology,  the  source  and  starting-poiiit  for  the  true  appre- 
hension and  appropriation  of  Christian  doctrine  ;  thus  giving  a 
view  of  Christianity  which  is  essentially  identical  with  the 
material  principle  of  the  Reformation — justification  by  faith  in 
the  redemption  wrought  by  Christ. 

But  while  Schleiermacher  distinguished  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness in  its  independence  of  science,  he  failed  to  recognize 
its  dependence  upon  special  divine  revelation  for  its  origin.  He 
started  from  the  Christian  consciousness  of  redemption  through 
Christ,  without  due  attention  to  the  fact  that  this  consciousness 
is  a  determinate  state  of  the  common  consciousness;  is  produced, 
and  can  be  produced,  only  by  a  supernatural  impression,  only 
by  a  divinely  and  miraculously  revealed  fact,  and  that  for  the 
certainty  of  our  knowledge  of  that  revelation  we  are  dependent 
upon  the  Bible.  He  overlooked  the  fact  that  this  consciousness 
presupposes  special  revelation,  and  must  have  its  corrective  and 
verification  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  ;  and  consequently  made 
theology  to  be  only  the  development  or  exposition  of  the 
Christian  consciousness.  He  asks  only  what  are  the  presuppo- 
sitions of  this  consciousness,  without  feeling  the  necessity  of  a 
miraculous  corroboration  of  them  and  of  a  divinely-inspired  rec- 
ord of  them.  He  went  back,  indeed,  to  the  Reformation,  but  he 
took  only  its  material  side,  only  its  material  principle.  Such  a 
theology  is  a  mere  seeming,  and  not  actual  science. 

In  this,  however,  the  theology  of  the  Christian  consciousness 
did  great  service  to  the  science.  It  led  to  the  discovery  of  the 
irreconcilableness  of  positive  faith  with  mere  science,  with 
mere  speculative  thought,  and  has  called  attention,  once  more, 
to  the  fact,  that  to  have  certainty  of  truth  in  religion,  the  cog- 
nitive elements  in  religion  must  not  be  separated  from  living  ex- 
perience, from  religion  as  a  primitive  fact  of  life,  a  fact  in  con- 
sciousness. It  apprehends  Christianity  as  a  fact  which  can  and 
does  become  a  fact  of  experience  in  consciousness.  This  was 
certainly  a  turning-point,  a  tendency  toward  a  more  thoroughly 
Evangelical  Theology,  toward  a  return  to  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation.  The  defect  of  all  the  existing  systems  was,  that 
in  their  mere  intellectualism  they  attempted  to  formulate  re- 
ligion according  to  some  speculative  apprehension,  without  ob- 
serving its  claims  as  a  matter  of  fact — a  fact  of  experience,  a  fact 


1 82  PRINCIPLE   AND    DOCTRINE. 

of  life.  Orthodox  supernaturalism  framed  its  "pure  doctrine" 
from  a  mere  intellectual  apprehension  of  revealed  truth,  and  did 
not  recognize  its  vital  relations  to  the  soul,  the  necessity  of  its 
becoming  a  matter  of  experience.  The  Vulgar  Rationalism 
maintained  its  religious  ideas,  God,  freedom,  and  immortality, 
on  the  grounds  of  pure  intellectual  demonstration,  and  ignored 
all  feeling  in  religion  other  than  that  which  necessarily  accom- 
panies intellectual  operations.  The  Philosophical  Theologians 
assumed  an  a  priori  position  by  which  all  the  gospel  history  was, 
at  last,  turned  into  myths  ;  and  all  sacred  facts,  into  ideas.  The 
theology  of  the  Christian  consciousness  brought  to  notice, 
what  was,  indeed,  involved  in  the  principle  of  the  Reformation — 
that  religion  has  in  feeling  a  sphere  distinct  from  mere  knowl- 
edge and  action,  and  independent  of  science;  that  there  is  a  real 
distinction  between  the  mere  conceptions  of  the  understanding 
and  experimental  knowledge,  which  may  be  discerned  in  faith, 
and  introduced  into  the  discussion  of  theology ;  and  that,  conse- 
quently, there  is  an  inseparable  connection  between  true  theo- 
logical science  and  real  living  faith.  While  both  the  vulgar  and 
speculative  rationalism — as  the  culmination  in  the  process  of 
mere  intellectualism  in  theology — sought  to  deduce  the  Chris- 
tian faith  from  some  one  of  the  ultimate  grounds  of  knowledge ; 
this  starts  from  primitive  feeling,  from  actual  experience,  and 
was,  thus,  a  renewal  of  one  phase  of  the  principle  of  the  Re- 
formation. 

§  8.  The  Defect  of  the  Theology  of  the  Christian  Consciousness. 
Its  defect  is,  that  it  does  not  fully  preseriie  the  unity  of  the  two 
phases  of  this  great  principle,  the  material  and  the  formal ;  mak- 
ing theology  consist  too  much  in  the  mere  development  of  the 
material  principle,  to  the  neglect  or  sacrifice  of  the  formal ;  too 
much  in  the  exposition  of  what  is  involved  in  the  Christian 
consciousness,  independently  of  the  question  of  the  objective 
truth  of  its  presuppositions,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  the  con- 
sciousness has  received  this  particular  determination.  As  the 
philosophical  theology  was  defective  by  its  recognizing  in  faith 
only  a  cognitive  element,  so  the  emotional  theology  is  defective 
by  its  reducing  the  content  of  faith  entirely  to  the  sentient  ele- 
ment ;  thus  making  the  doctrines  of  religion  a  mere  reflection 
of  the  relisfious  feelingf.     The  consciousness  of  living  commun- 


THE    CHRIST    "  OUT    OF    US "    AND    THE    CHRIST    "  IN    US."      1 83 

ion  with  Christ  must,  indeed,  be  the  starting-point  in  our  theol- 
ogy, but  we  must  not  forget  tJiat  this  consciousness  itself  is  the 
production  of  the  impression  of  Christian  truth  itpon  the  human 
mijtd ;  of  trutli  wliicJi,  though  needed  by  our  nature  and  adapted 
to  it,  is  of  supernatural  and  miracidous  origin.  It  has  come  to 
the  human  mind  by  special  rev'elation  ;  and,  though  intimately 
united  with  the  soul  in  experience,  still  it  is  distinct.  Our  the- 
ology, therefore,  must  aim  not  at  humanizing  the  Christian,  but 
at  Christianizing  the  human  element  in  this  consciousness. 
While  saving  faith  is  properly  received  as  a  belief  independent 
for  its  origination  or  existence  of  all  science,  it  must  still  be 
traced  to  the  truth  and  power  of  the  gospel,  and  be  found  capa- 
ble of  enduring  the  test  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  Consequently, 
the  mere  organic  development  of  what  is  in  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness is  not  necessarily  true  Christianity;  nor  its  exposition 
true  theology.  The  Christ  of  this  consciousness  is  not  neces- 
sarily the  true  Christ.  While,  therefore,  it  must  exist  before 
theology,  and  must  be  regarded  as  that  which  makes  true  the- 
ology as  a  science  possible,  still  it  is  purely  subjective ;  and  it  is 
the  business  of  theology,  not  only  to  ask  what  is  implied  in  this 
consciousness  of  communion  with  Christ,  but  we  must  ask  for 
its  presuppositions,  its  ideas,  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  Theology 
must  have  the  Christ  "  out  of  us,"  as  well  as  the  Christ  "  in  us," 
the  Christ  of  the  Bible  as  well  as  the  Christ  of  the  conscious- 
ness. This  consciousness  is  limited  to  the  assurance  of  salva- 
tion through  faith  in  Christ.  It  does  not  embrace  all  Christian 
knowledge ;  and  it  must  not  remain  entirely  subjective.  It  must 
draw  from  the  Scriptures  as  the  only  pure  source  of  all  religious 
knowledge  ;  and  it  must  adopt  them  as  its  only  infallible  guide 
and  its  only  sure  criterion. 

§  9.  The  Modern  Tendency  toward  a  Return  to  this  Distinction. 
But  every  true  revival  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  mtist 
start  from  this  inner  experience  of  salvation  through  faith  in 
Christ.  As  it  was  in  the  days  of  Luther  and  Spener,  so  in  our 
day,  it  will  be  just  in  proportion  as  this  is  made  the  ground- 
work, that  men  will  be  prepared  for  a  clear  understanding  and  a 
hearty  reception  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church.  It  is  only 
when  all  doctrines  are  referred  to  this  controlling  point,  to  this 
central  truth  of  the  experience  of  faith,  that  we  can  escape,  on 


184  PRINCIPLE    AND    DOCTRINE. 

the  one  hand,  from  the  magical  idea  of  an  unspiritual,  mechan- 
ical supernaturalism,  and  on  the  other,  from  the  empirical  natur- 
alism of  a  skeptical,  negating  rationalism,  without  falling  into 
the  a  priori  meshes  of  an  idealistic,  all-absorbing  pantheism. 

All  modern  evangelical  theology  has  felt  this  impulse  ;  and 
all  the  leading  theological  thinkers  in  it,  from  the  most  liberal 
to  the  most  rigidly  orthodox,  are  taking  this  direction. 

Many — such  as  the  Mediating  Theologians — are  in  this  way 
laboring  to  unite  the  Christian  consciousness  and  philosophical 
thought,  in  a  higher  unity,  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between  the 
faith  of  the  Church  and  the  results  of  modern  science.-  They 
feel  that  the  age  of  apologetics  has  returned  upon  us.  The  work 
of  adjusting  the  relations  of  revelation  and  reason,  of  religion 
and  science,  at  all  times  important,  they  regard  as  specially 
needed  now.  And  considering  the  great  difference  between  the 
ancient  and  modern  methods  of  science,  the  vast  advance  of 
thought  in  our  day,  they  regard  the  ecclesiastical  doctrines 
capable  of  being  retained  and  supported  only  in  a  rejuvenated 
form.  They,  consequently,  avail  themselves  of  the  very  means 
of  modern  science,  and  use  the  highest  modes  of  modern 
thought,  in  attempting  to  bring  positive  Christianity  into  favor- 
able connection  with  the  consciousness  of  modern  times. 

And  even  those  who,  despairing  of  the  attempt  to  remove  the 
antagonism  between  secular  culture  and  Christianity  as  it  exists 
in  our  day,  seek  to  attain  a  more  confessional  theology,  are 
doing  it  under  the  impulse  of  this  tendency.  Influenced  by  the 
modern  revival  of  religion,  by  the  progressive  psychological 
development  and  the  clearer  apprehension  of  the  nature,  the 
necessities  and  possibilities  of  men  individually  and  socially, 
and  deeply  interested  in  the  life-questions  of  the  day,  they  are 
unwilling  to  leave  out  of  view  these  human  manifestations. 
And  having  a  deep  and  distinct  consciousness  that  the  Evan- 
gelical Lutheran  Confessions  are  in  agreement  with  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  the  Reformation,  they  are  becoming  more 
and  more  Lutheran  in  their  views ;  and,  without  being  very 
anxious  about  the  form,  are  diligently  cultivating  the  spirit  of  a 
confessional  theology.  Finally,  even  those  who,  by  means  of  a 
stringent  enforcement  of  the  symbols  of  the  Church,  are  in  a 
more  mechanical,  artificial  way,  returning  to  the  faith  of  the 
fathers,   manifest    in   their  treatment    of    the   several   topics  of 


THE  TRUE  GROUND  AND  THE  OPEN  WAY.         1 85 

theology  that  they  are  not  free  from  this  tendency.  The  strong- 
est thinkers  among  them  are  doing  more  justice  to  Melanchthon 
than  is  to  be  found  in  the  orthodoxy  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Some  of  them  admit  that  the  Melanchthonian  element  was  not 
fairly  dealt  with  even  in  the  Formula  of  Concord,  and  that  in 
several  of  these  respects,  such  as  the  freedom  of  man  and  the 
person  of  Christ,  this  creed  is  capable  of  modification  and  im 
provement.  "This  principle  of  progress,"  it  is  said,  "is  not 
rejected  even  by  the  most  decided  adherents  of  the  Lutheran 
Confession  in  Germany.  They  too  distinguish  between  the 
'  substance  of  the  creed  and  the  leading  proof  for  a  certain 
theology,  which  cannot  be  binding  on  all  times.'  They  also 
wish  for  a  progressive  and  continued  formation  of  symbolical 
doctrines.  But  such  a  continuous  formation  of  doctrines  can 
not  be  simply  the  addition  of  something  new  to  the  old.  The 
truth  is  an  organic  whole,  which  must  be  brought  by  each 
successive  age  afresh  into  the  currents  of  science."  This  being 
the  groundwork,  we  are  in  a  condition  either  to  eliminate,  or, 
what  is  better,  to  give  an  evangelical  explanation  of  what  appear 
to  be  materials  of  a  heterogeneous  nature,  and  to  develop  the 
fundamental  doctrines  of  the  divine  Word  as  they  are  exhibited 
in  the  Augsburg  Confession.  The  Reformation  having  thus  dis- 
tinguished between  foundation  and  superstructure,  between  prin- 
ciple and  doctrine,  and  retaining  the  great  substance  of  doctrine 
without  very  sharply  defining  the  theological  dogmas,  has  left  it 
to  each  successive  age  to  study  them  in  the  light  of  its  time,  and 
to  express  them  in  the  language  suited  to  its  generation.  The 
post-Reformation  formations,  the  scholastic  structures  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  great  and  strong  as  they  were,  have  had 
their  day  and  have  done  their  service.  They  are  crumbling; 
they  cannot  be  successfully  repaired ;  they  will  never  again 
have  contented,  satisfied  and  happy  inmates.  But  the  old  home 
of  the  Reformation  will  never  decay,  but  will  be  more  and  more 
crowded  from  age  to  age  with  confident  and  joyful  children,  who 
will,  upon  the  old  and  solid  groundwork,  extend  its  dimensions, 
adorn  more  and  more  its  apartments,  carry  higher  and  higher  its 
superstructure,  until  its  super-incumbent  dome  shall  close  in 
over  a  renovated  Christianity,  a  purified  Church,  a  regenerate 
world. 

We  have  a  right,  and  it  is  our  duty,  to  appropriate  the  methods 


1 86  PRINCIPLE   AND    DOCTRINE. 

and  to  use  the  modes  of  modern  thought ;  for  they  are  the  re- 
sults, in  a  great  measure,  of  the  influence  of  Christianity.  The 
Modern  Philosophy  derived  from  Christianity,  that  is,  the  idea 
of  God  and  the  world,  of  religion  and  man,  developed  under  the 
peculiar  impulse  given  to  the  human  mind  and  the  particular 
determination  of  the  consciousness  of  the  nations  of  Christen- 
dom by  the  Gospel — that  pJdlosophy ,  theology  should  endeavor 
more  and  more  clearly  to  apprehend,  appropriate,  and  apply. 
This  idea,  this  Christian  philosophy,  has  in  a  great  measure  sup- 
planted the  ancient  philosophy  which  was  derived  from  heathen- 
dom, and  has  introduced  a  new  and  different  spirit  into  science. 
The  Christian  idea  of  God  and  the  world,  of  religion  and  man, 
is  really  the  modern  as  distinguished  from  the  ancient  view  of 
the  universe  of  being.  This  Christian  tuorld-viczu  tuiderlies  all 
that  distinguishes  the  intellectual  as  zvell  as  the  moral  movements  of 
the  modern  as  distinguished  frojn  the  ancient  Jieathen  ivorld.  And 
it  will  eventually  take  possession  of  human  thought  specula- 
tively, as  it  has  thus  far  to  a  great  extent  done  practically.  This 
idea-,  as  an  intuition  of  saving  faith,  a  necessary  presupposition 
of  saving  truth,  belongs  to  the  groundwork.  It  must,  therefore, 
be  taken  into  consideration  in  connection  with  the  method  of 
theological  science,  and  especially  as  there  have  been,  and  are  still, 
revivals,  within  the  sphere  of  theology,  of  the  heathen  idea^  the 
heathen  view  of  God  and  the  world ;  and  because  the  true  Chris- 
tian idea  has  perhaps  never  had  its  due  weight  in  the  theological 
conceptions  aud  discussions,  and  lias,  perhaps,  never  been  permitted 
to  become  the  complete  counterpoise  to  the  unbelieving  skeptical 
thought  of  the  day,  that  it  might  become,  it  should,  in  a  second 
part  of  the  groundwork,  be  considered  in  its  bearings  on  the 
great  life-questions  concerning  God  and  religion.  We  shall, 
therefore,  attempt  to  show,  in  some  measure,  what,  in  the  light 
of  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  it  claims  and  what  it  rejects; 
what  it  involves  and  what  it  excludes  ;  to  make  clear  the  direct 
issue  to  which  it  has  come  with  the  heathen  idea  as  its  only 
consistent  opponent,  and  to  turn  our  attention  to  the  vantage- 
ground  that  the  Christian  cause  thus  occupies  in  our  day. 


PART  II. 


THE  APPLICATION  OF   THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA    OF    GOD  AND 
THE    WORLD,  OF  RELIGION  AND    MAN,  OF  THE    RE- 
LA  TIONS  BE  TIVEEN  GOD  AND  MAN,  AS  APPRE- 
HENDED BY  MEANS  OF  THE  PRINCIPLE 
OF  THE  REFORMATION. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  AS  REQUIRED  TO  BE  APPRE- 
HENDED AND  APPLIED  THROUGH  THE  PRIN- 
CIPLE OF  THE  REFORMATION. 


If  there  is  to  be  a  science  of  faith,  it  must  be  science  of  a  faith 
which  is  possessed  independently  of  science.  The  certainty  of 
faith  must  have  been  produced  in  ways  and  by  means  other  than 
those  of  miere  science.  It  is  only  when  we  have  the  specific 
and  certain  faith  involved  in  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  tliat 
we  have  the  basis  of  true  Christian  science.  It  is  only  when  our 
belief  is  specific  faith  in  the  great  centre  of  all  truth,  faith  in 
God  revealed  in  Christ,  a  personal  assurance  of  salvation,  an 
inner  certainty  of  truth  produced  by  the  gospel  and  Spirit  of 
God ;  only  when  Christianity  is  experienced  as  a  fact ;  only 
when  the  great  fact  of  the  Sacred  History  recorded  in  the  Bible 
has  become  a  matter  of  experience,  that  we  have  a  starting- 
point  for  a  true  Christian  theology.  It  is  only  when  we  appre- 
hend revelation,  not  as  the  communication  of  mere  abstract  doc- 
trine to  men  on  the  part  of  God,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  history 
of  facts  involving  both  the  divine  and  the  human,  a  history  of 
divine  acts  in  human  nature  and  society — as  a  sacred  histoiy 
recorded  in  the  Bible,  and  not  a  mere  body  of  doctrine  put  into 
the  hands  of  the  systematizer  ;  only  when  we  regard  the  divine 
incarnation,  the  advent  of  Christ  into  the  world,  as  the  perfect 
divine  revelation,  and  liave  an  assjwcd  and  certain  faith  in  Him  as 
the  Saviour  of  the  said — tliat  zve  can  apprehend  the  true  idea  of 
God  and  the  zvorld.  It  is  only  in  this  way  that  we  come  into 
communication  effectually  with  the  source  from  which  are  de- 
rived the  ideas  which  can  successfully  be  made  the  subjects  of 
science,  and  which  with  certainty  can  be  corroborated  by  scien- 
tific investigation.  It  is  only  then  that  we  shall  have  the  true 
apprehension  of  the  Christian  idea  as  distinguished  from  the 
heathen  idea  of  the  universe  of  being.  It  must  be  not  merely  a 
speculative  thought,  but  an  intuition  involved  in  experience. 
The  most  ignorant  man  who  is  spiritual,  who  has   experienced 

(189) 


IQO  THE   APPREHENSION    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEA. 

salvation  in  Christ,  who  has  reahzed  in  experience  the  nature  of 
sin  and  of  grace,  may  have,  at  least,  a  living  source  and  a  liv- 
ing beginning  of  true  Christian  science ;  while  the  most  learned 
philosopher,  who  is  destitute  of  this,  has  no  true  basis  of  science 
in  Christianity,  no  true  idea  of  God  and  the  world,  of  religion 
and  man.  Sin  and  grace  are  facts — the  one  involving  acts  of 
man,  the  other  acts  of  God — and  facts  can  be  personally  known 
and  clearly  understood  only  by  experience.  Hence  the  appeal  to 
the  fact  that  mere  natural  religion  lacks  redemptive  power,  and 
that  Christianity  pre-supposes  the  facts  of  sin  and  guilt,  and  that 
its  great  substance  is  the  fact  of  an  expiation  for  the  one  and 
deliverance  from  the  other,  has  always  been  the  most  effective 
upon  the  minds  of  men.  Everything  in  Christian  science  de- 
pends upon  the  full  appropriation  of  the  Biblical  idea  of  God. 
Saving  faith  involves  this  as  an  intuition  inseparable  from  its 
experience.  So  closely  is  this  experience  of  justification  by 
faith  in  Christ  alone,  connected  with  the  clear  and  impressive 
apprehension  of  the  true  idea  of  God  and  the  world,  that  we 
might  venture  to  say  that  the  man  who  admits  the  reality  of  sin, 
as  sin  on  the  part  of  man,  and  of  forgiveness  of  sin  as  a  free  act 
on  the  part  of  God, — cannot  consistently  remain  on  mere  ration- 
alistic ground.  It  is,  indeed,  only  the  man  who  has  experience 
of  justification  by  faith  who  has  a  clear  conviction  of  this  reality  ; 
and  the  man  who  does  experience  sin  as  guilt  and  grace  as  a 
free  gift,  has  in  him  the  germ  of  a  true  Christian  science,  and 
the  capability  of  scientifically  apprehending  Christianity.  Such 
a  man  will  have  received  the  Christian  idea  in  such  a  light  that 
it  will  be  a  sure  guide  to  him  in  the  scientific  process.  The 
greater  realization  of  the  facts  of  sin  and  grace,  produced  by 
the  Methodistic  revival  of  religion  in  the  last  century,  did  more 
for  the  restoration  of  faith  in  the  thinking  mind  of  England 
than  all  the  learned  labors  of  her  greatest  apologists;  and  the 
present  practical  interest  in  personal  salvation  resulting  from  the 
experimental  preaching  of  her  evangelical  ministers  will  mani- 
fest a  similar  superiority  of  power  against  infidelity  in  that 
country  at  the  present  day. 

Those  elements  of  truth  which  may  be  found  in  some  of  the 
better  systems  of  religious  heathendom,  such  as  those  of  Plato 
and  Aristotle,  have  their  source  in  the  revealed  idea  of  God. 
Their  comparatively  correct  views  of  God,  their  theistic  notions, 


SLOWLY    AND    GRADUALLY    ATTAINED.  I9I 

may,  according  to  so  profound  and  impartial  an  investigator  as 
Schelling,  be  regarded  "as  sporadic  portions  of  the  patriarchal 
and  Jewish  revelations."  This  prevented  in  them  the  pantheistic 
developments  characteristic  of  heathen  systems.  But  while  the 
revealed  idea  of  God  and  the  world  was  thus  the  source  of  the 
theistic  element  contained  in  the  best  forms  of  heathenism — and 
forms  which,  though  greatly  corrupted,  yet  restrained  many  of 
its  evil  tendencies,  and  hindered  the  development  of  the  panthe- 
istic philosophy  which  really  underlies  it — still,  it  only  appeared 
in  "sporadic  portions,"  and  was  never  purely  or  fully  appro- 
priated. Even  the  Grecian  philosophy,  in  its  highest  forms,  as 
Platonism  and  Aristotelianism,  failed  to  apprehend  God  as  the 
Creator  of  the  world  in  the  strict  sense.  God  was  to  it  not 
personal,  but  only  artistic.  It  never  freed  itself  from  the  idea 
of  the  eternity  of  matter,  and,  consequently,  was  involved  in  a 
pantheism  which  would,  at  last,  prove  itself  to  be  its  native  and 
leading  idea.  The  Christian  idea  comes  from  the  holy  God;  the 
heathen,  from  corrupt  man.  As  the  former  came  first  from 
revelation,  it  is  but  dozvly  apprehended  even  by  the  subjects  of  that 
revelation.  Gradually,  and  by  repeated  acts  of  revelation,  it  was 
made  more  and  more  clear  and  impressive,  until  it  had  its  per- 
fect revelation  in  the  gospel.  So  it  has  gradually  and  from  time 
to  time,  at  certain  great  turning  points  in  the  history  of  Christi- 
anity, been  more  and  more  fully  apprehended  by  the  Christian 
mind.  Its  complete  appropriation  by  the  CJuircJi  ivill  be  the 
moment  of  her  greatest  power  3.gdi\nst  all  error.  And  the  more 
fully  the  antagonism  between  it  and  infidelity  is  manifested,  the 
more  will  the  latter  be  seen  to  be  only  the  heathen  idea  in  its 
more  scientific  development,  and  the  greater  will  be  the  power 
of  the  former  over  the  mind  and  belief  of  all  sincere  and  earnest 
men.  The  heathen  idea  is  from  the  cosmical  spirit,  not  from  the 
Holy  Spirit.  It  has  its  ground,  source  and  end  in  the  creature. 
In  its  modern  or  scientific  form  it  is  the  conception  of  the  abso- 
lute as  the  All,  instead  of  that  of  the  absolute  as  the  all-com- 
prehending Spirit;  of  an  eternal  impersonal  necessity,  instead 
of  the  personal  God  as  the  first  and  the  last;  and  thus  it  denies 
all  freedom,  and  removes  every  truly  moral  end  and  motive  from 
human  action.  And  when  men  now  start  with  the  creature  in 
their  search  for  the  good,  expecting  to  find  it,  not  as  eternally 
realized  in  God,  but  as  the  result  of  an  evolution  of  being;  when 


192  THE   APPREHENSION    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEA. 

instead  of  making  the  living  God,  who  is  the  true  source  of  the 
unity  of  the  universe,  and  of  the  good,  the  first,  the  eternally 
existent — they  derive  the  unity  and  good  of  being — the  one  as 
a  product  of  a  multitude  of  single  existences,  and  the  other  as 
a  simple  consequence  of  individual  activity;  regarding  God  and 
the  good  as  something  ever  becoming,  but  never  really  existing 
— never  coming  truly  into  being — when  they  seek  the  ground  of 
all  duty,  first,  in  the  All  instead  of  the  living  pej^sonal  God,  and 
goodness  as  something  which  they  must  first  produce — must 
oripfinate  from  themselves  and  of  themselves,  instead  of  that 
which  is  tlie  first,  and  can  only  be  freely  appropriated  by  the 
creature — when  men  now  think  thus,  they  only  give  expression 
to  the  heathen  idea,  the  idea  which  was  in  the  minds  of  those 
whom  Paul  characterized  when  he  said:  "When  they  knew  God 
they  worshiped  Him  not  as  God,  neither  were  thankful ;"  "their 
foolish  hearts  were  darkened ;  "  "and  they  worshiped  the  crea- 
ture more  than  the  Creator  who  is  God  blessed  for  evermore." 
The  Christian  idea  as  distinguished  from  the  heathen  world- 
view,  was  not,  at  once,  speculatively  apprehended  by  the  Church. 
It  was  not,  at  once,  freed  in  the  thoughts  of  men  from  all 
heathen  elements  and  influences.  The  heathen  idea  has  gener- 
ally corrupted  the  human  mind  before  the  revealed  idea  comes 
to  it.  "  The  human  mind,"  says  Dr.  Shedd,  "  is  always  in  a  cer- 
tain philosophical  condition  before  it  receives  Christianity,  and 
even  before  Christianity  is  offered  to  it  by  the  Divine  Mind.  In 
the  history  of  man  that  which  is  human  precedes,  chronolog- 
ically, that  which  is  divine.  '  That  is  not  first  which  is  spiritual, 
but  that  which  is  natural,  and  afterward  that  which  is  spiritual' 
Men  are  sinners  before  they  are  saints  ;  and  they  are  philoso- 
phers before  they  are  theologians.  When  Christianity  was  re- 
vealed in  its  last  and  fullest  form,  by  the  incarnation  of  the 
Eternal  Word,  it  found  the  human  mind  already  occupied  with 
a  human  philosophy.  Educated  men  were  Platonists,  or 
Stoics,  or  Epicureans.  And  if  we  go  back  to  the  time  of  the 
Patriarchal  and  Jewish  revelations  of  the  Old  Testament,  we 
find  there  was  in  the  minds  of  men,  an  existing  system  of  natu- 
ral religion  and  ethics,  which  was  for  that  elder  secular  world 
what  those  Grecian  philosophies  were  for  the  cultivated  heathen 

intellect  at  the  advent  of  Christ Christianity  comes  down 

from  heaven  by  a  supernatural  revelation,  but  it  finds  an  existing 


THE    HEATHEN    IDEA    FIRST    PREVAILS.  I93 

human  culture,  into  which  it  enters,  and  begins  to  exert  its 
transforming  power.  Usually  it  overmasters  that  culture,  but  in 
some  instances  it  is  temporally  overmastered  by  it."  The  apos- 
tolic Church,  under  the  guidance  of  inspired  men  and  of  the 
spiritual  experience  of  the  power  of  Christianity,  accepted  the 
Christian  idea  of  God  and  the  world  as  it  is  revealed  in  the 
Bible,  and  appropriated  it  intellectually  by  the  knowledge  which  is 
through  faith.  "  Faith  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the 
evidence  of  things  not  seen.  For  by  it  the  elders  obtained  a 
good  report.  Through  faith  we  understand  that  the  worlds 
were  framed  by  the  word  of  God,  so  that  things  which  are  seen 
were  not  made  of  things  which  do  appear."  They  had  little  to 
do  with  systems  of  human  speculation,  except  to  guard  against 
"  Science,  falsely  so-called,"  and  against  "being  spoiled  by  phil- 
osophy and  vain  deceit."  There  was,  as  yet,  no  philosophy 
which  was  the  result  of  the  power  of  Christianity  upon  the 
human  mind,  the  outgrowth  of  the  influence  of  the  experience 
and  the  knowledge  of  faith — the  product  of  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness ;  and  when  philosophical  thought  came  into  the 
Church,  it  was  the  philosophy  which  had  its  origin  in  the 
heathen  world.  And  this  was  employed  not  only  by  the  ene- 
mies of  the  Church  in  attacking  Christianity,  but  also  by  her 
friends  in  defending  it  against  these  attacks.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  Christian  and  the  heathen  idea  of  God  and  the  world 
was  not  immediately  apprehended.  The  question  was  not  so 
much  whether  Platonism,  for  instance,  was  substantially  true,  but 
whether  it  was  all  that  was  necessary  for  the  spiritual  regeneration 
and  salvation  of  men.  Only  gradually  and  from  time  to  time, 
and  on  certain  decisive  occasions,  ivas  the  Church  led  to  a  spccida- 
tive  apprehension  of  the  world-viezv  zvhich  is  revealed  in  the  Bible, 
and  zvhich  she  had  all  along  involved  in  her  faith.  While,  for 
example,  Christians  always  practically  appropriated  the  biblical 
idea  of  the  unity  of  God  by  faith,  it  was  only  in  the  discussions 
concerning  the  Trinity,  and  when  the  Arians  conceived  of  the 
Son  and  Holy  Ghost  as  secondary  divinities,  that  the  Church 
was  led  to  apprehend  speculatively  the  specif  c  biblical  idea  of  the 
Divine  unity.  And  it  was  only  when  these  heretics  attributed 
the  origin  of  the  second  person  in  the  Trinity  to  an  act  of  crea- 
tion, that  the  Church  came  to  the  clear  apprehension  of  the  re- 
vealed idea  of  creation  in  the  strict  sense. 
13 


194  THE    APPREHENSION    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEA. 

But  the  old  heathen  idea  of  God,  the  speculative  appre- 
hension of  Him  as  pure,  simple,  indeterminate  being,  which, 
as  we  shall  see,  was  in  germ,  and  necessarily  became,  in  its  com- 
plete logical  development,  pantheism  ;  and  the  old  idea  of  man 
which  made  him  in  reality  a  mere  nature-object,  still  lived  and 
ruled  in  the  theology  of  the  Church.  There  was  no  real  com- 
munion of  persons  between  God  and  man  ;  the  relation  between 
them  was  merely  that  of  two  forces,  which  mutually  suspended 
each  other  in  their  action  ;  so  that,  for  instance,  according 
to  Augustinianism,  the  influence  of  God's  grace  would  sus- 
pend the  action  of  man ;  and  according  to  Pelagianism,  the 
action  of  man  would  suspend  the  influence  of  divine  grace. 
They  could  not  be  conceived  as  acting  mutually  but  only  alter- 
nately. The  old  heathen  idea,  when  it  comes  to  clear  conscious- 
ness, as  it  has  in  modern  times,  "must  recognize  man  and  all 
that  is  about  him,  as  separate  links  in  the  same  indefinite  chain 
of  coming  and  departing  events,  each  in  its  destined  place  ful- 
filling its  own  mission,  and  all  constituting  a  progressive  series 
of  necessitated  successions  which  are  both  unalterable  and  in- 
terminable." This  heathen  world-view  has  all  along  clung  more 
or  less  to  theology,  and  hindered  the  appropriation  of  the  true 
Christian  idea.  It  may,  indeed,  to  quote  again  the  language  of 
Dr.  Hickok,  "  be  gravely  inquired,  if  there  be  not  some  long- 
standing and  far-famed  theories  in  metaphysics  among  us,  which 
must  infallibly  terminate  in  the  above  conclusions,  whenever 
they  shall  be  pushed  onward  to  their  consequences.  A  philos- 
ophy w^hich  includes  in  the  same  category  of  causation  the 
changes  in  matter  and  the  originations  of  the  mind,  though  it 
may  use  the  qualifying  terms  of  a  natural  and  a  moral  necessity, 
but  which  still  do  not  mark  any  discrimination  in  the  cormcctions 
but  only  in  the  tilings  connected,  must  unavoidably  find  within 
itself  the  charmed  circle  out  of  which  there  can  be  no  escaping. 
It  is  not  possible  that  such  a  theory  can  vindicate  for  the  human 
soul  its  immortality,  nor  for  the  Deity  in  His  eternity  the  pos- 
session of  any  attributes  which  may  rise  above,  or  reach  beyond, 
the  interminable  conditions  in  the  linked  series  of  a  fixed 
causation." 

At  the  Reformation  for  the  first  time  there  was  realized  the 
true  speculative  apprelicnsion  of  the  Christian  idea  of  God,  which 
Luther  called  the  "  New  Wisdom  ;"  and  it  was   in  the  light  of 


THE    IMPULSE    GIVEN    BY   THE   REFORMATION.  1 95 

this  precious  idea  that  he  was  so  indignant  at  Aristotle.  It  was 
not  at  philosophy  itself  that  he  was  so  furious,  but  at  the  false 
philosophy,  "  The  Old  Wisdom,"  of  which  Aristotle  was  in  his 
estimation  the  representative.  And  it  was  then  also,  for  the 
first  time,  and  mainly  through  the  instrumentality  of  Melanch- 
thon,  that  the  biblical  idea  of  man  in  his  relation  to  God  was 
clearly  apprehended.  Thus  were  the  true  ideas  of  God  and  man, 
— of  God  as  a  spirit,  as  the  personal  living  God,  the  Creator  of 
all  things,  as  revealing  Himself  to  man  and  communing  with 
him  ;  and  the  spiritual  personal  nature  of  man,  the  freedom  and 
responsibility  of  the  individual,  the  rights  and  privileges  of  "the 
Christian  man," — only  brought  to  clear  intellectual  apprehension 
by  the  principle  of  the  great  Lutheran  Reformation.  The  per- 
sonal assurance  of  salvation  by  faith  in  Christ  alone,  the  inner 
certainty  of  truth  by  the  experience  of  the  power  of  the  gospel 
as  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation,  gave  a  new  impulse  to 
philosophical  thought.  But  wJiilc  in  the  nezv  philosophical  activ- 
ity, the  "  Old  Wisdom','  the  heathen  idea,  has  come  to  its  fidl  devel- 
opment;  the  "  New  Wisdom','  the  Christian  idea,  has  not  been  fully 
enough  appropriated  to  be  the  complete  counterpoise  to  its  influence, 
which  it  is  destined  to  become. 

Thus  did  modern  philosophy  receive  its  great  impulse  from 
the  principle  of  the  Reformation.  But,  as  we  have  seen,  when 
men  began  to  make  the  question  of  the  certainty  of  truth  a 
purely  intellectual  one — separated  from  the  experience  of  assur- 
ance of  salvation,  from  the  fact  of  justification  by  faith  in  Christ 
as  a  fact  of  life — the  heathen,  instead  of  the  Christian  idea, 
came  to  its  culmination.  That  idea  which  lay  undeveloped 
under  heathenism,  was  fully  developed  in  the  secular  philosophy. 
And  theology /^//i?^  to  appropriate  and  distinctly  apply  the  Chris- 
tian woi'ld-viczv ;  7tay,  by  still  holding  the  old  view  of  God  as 
abstract,  simple,  indeterminate  being,  it  prepared  the  ivay  for  that 
pantheism  into  zvhich  the  heathen  idea  has  bee?i  fully  developed. 
We  should,  therefore,  consider  it  the  special  work  of  theology 
in  the  present  day  to  apply  the  true  CJiristian  idea,  as  it  is  appre- 
hended by  means  of  the  principle  of  the  Reformation.  First, 
because  we  shall  never  be  fully  faithful  to  the  true  Lutheran 
Reformation,  and  the  true  Lutheran  spirit,  until  we  prosecute 
our  theological  studies  in  this  way.  Secondly,  because  evan- 
gelical piety,  communion  with   God  in  Christ,  personal   experi- 


196  THE    APPREHENSION    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEA. 

ence  of  the  fact  of  the  justification  of  sinful  men  before  God  by 
faith  in  Christ,  is  not  only  an  essential  element  in  the  ground- 
work, the  generating  principle,  the  central  point  for  the  whole 
system  of  theology,  but  it  is  determinative  of  the  state  of  mind 
for  the  speculative  apprehension  and  application  of  the  idea  of 
God  and  the  world  which  the  Bible  revei^is,  and  which  Christi- 
anity tends  to  produce  in  the  mind  of  its  subjects,  in  all  its 
relations,  bearings  and  operations.  Though  theology  is  distinct 
from  mere  philosophy,  yet  as  Christianity  tends  to  produce  its  own 
world-view,  its  oiim  pliilosopJiy ,  theology  must  recognize,  appropri- 
ate and  apply  tins  residt.  Thirdly,  because  the  distinction,  the 
difference,  and  the  antagonism  between  the  Christian  idea  and 
the  heathen  world-view,  have  come,  at  last,  as  was  not  the  case 
in  former  days,  to  be  recognized  and  acknowledged  by  the  ene- 
mies of  Christianity.  They  now  see  that  there  can,  in  the  last 
and  the  most  complete  analysis,  be  but  tzvo  ideas  concerning  God 
and  tlie  zvorld ;  that  no  others  are  conceivable;  that  these  two 
only  possible  ideas  are  directly  contradictory  to  one  another ; 
and  that  every  logical  thinker  must  choose  one  or  the  other. 
And  they  recognize  the  one  as  the  Jieathen,  the  other  as  the  Chris- 
tia?i  idea;  the  one  as  denying  all  personality  in  God  and  all 
personal  immortality  for  man ;  the  other  regarding  God  a  Spirit 
and  man  free,  responsible  and  immortal.  Theology  should 
accept  this  issue  with  joy,  and  recognize  it,  as  a  result  which 
could  only  be  brought  out  by  the  clear  light,  which  the  princi- 
ple of  the  Reformation  has  shed  upon  the  idea  of  God ;  and 
she  should  now,  in  this  same  light,  apply  this  idea  not  only  for 
her  own  purification  and  for  the  edification  of  believers,  but  also 
for  the  hastening  of  the  triumph  of  Christianity  over  its  enemies. 
For  the  more  clearly  this  idea  is  stated  in  all  its  bearings,  in 
contrast  with  the  character  and  consequences  of  the  other, 
the  more  readily  will  the  common  sense  of  men  and  the  con- 
sciences and  hearts  of  all  sincere  and  earnest  souls,  accept  it  as 
the  only  truth.  Other  ideas,  suggested  by  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation,  belong  to  the  system  ;  but  the  light  which,  thus, 
necessarily  springs  from  it,  should  be  used  in  the  groundwork, 
in  the  application  of  the  true  idea  of  God  and  the  world,  of 
religion  and  man,  to  the  most  important  apologetical  and  polem- 
ical interests — to  the  most  vital  questions  of  religion  in  our  day. 
We  will  make  two  divisions  of  this  part,  applying  this  light  in 


THE   TWO    DIVISIONS.  197 

the  first  to  the  Idea  of  God  and  the  world,  and  in  the  second  to 
that  of  religion  and  man ;  in  the  first  to  questions  concerning 
the  nature  of  God,  in  the  second  to  those  respecting  the  nature 
of  reli2"ion. 


DIVISION    L 


THE  APPLICA  riON  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  OF  GOD  AND  THE   WORLD,  IN 
THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  THE  REFORMATION,  TO  THE  QUES- 
TIONS CONCERNING  THE  KNOWABLENESS  OF  GOD,  THE  SOURCE  AND 
GROUNDS  OF  OUR  BELIEF  IN  GOD,    THE   CONSISTENCY  OF  THE 
DIVINE  PERSONALITY  WITH  THE  DIVINE  INFINITY,  THE  TRUE 
NA  TURE  OF  THE  DIVINE  UNITY;   THEISM  AND  PANTHEISM, 
THE  GREA  T  CONFLICT  OF  THE  DA  Y. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE  APPLICATION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  IN  THIS  LIGHT  TO  THE 
QUESTION  OF  THE  KNOWABLENESS  AND  THE  INCOMPREHENSI- 
BILITY OF  GOD. 

§   I.   Tlicse  Attributes  are  Inseparable  in  the  Divine  Nature. 

The  Christian  idea  of  the  Creator  and  the  creature  as  appre- 
hended through  the  principle  of  the  Reformation  forbids  all  sep- 
aration of  the  knowableness  and  the  incomprehensibility  of  God. 
It  is  only  in  the  Realism  of  this  principle,  in  the  experience 
which  it  requires,  that  we  have  the  basis  for  a  positive  conception 
of  God.  "  The  distinction,"  says  Dr.  Shedd,  "  between  a  posi- 
tive and  an  exhaustive  conception  has  been  overlooked  in  the 
recent  discussions  respecting  the  possibility  of  man's  possessing 
a  positive  conception  of  the  infinite.  If  by  a  positive  knowl- 
edge be  meant  an  infinite  or  perfect  knowledge  that  exhausts 
all  the  mysteries  of  an  object,  then  men  cannot  have  a  positive 
knowledge  of  even  a  finite  thing.  But  if  by  positive  knowledge 
is  meant  true  and  valid  as  far  as  the  cognition  reaches — if  the 
term  relates  to  quality  and  not  to  quantity — then  man's  knowl- 
edge of  the  infinite  is  a3  positive  as  his  knowledge  of  the  finite. 
In  this  latter  and  only  proper  use  of  the  term,  man's  conception 
of  eternity  is  as  positive  as  his  conception  of  time,  and  his  ap- 
prehension of  divine  justice  is  no  more  a  mere  negation  than 
his  apprehension  of  human  justice.  Man's  knowledge  of  God, 
like  his  knowledge  of  the  ocean,  is  a  positive  perception  as  fai 
as  it  extends.    He  does  not  exhaustively  comprehend  the  ocean, 

(198) 


THE   CONDITIONS    OF   A    POSITIVE    CONCEPTION.  1 99 

but  this  does  not  render  his  knowledge  of  the  ocean  as  to  its 
quality  a  mere  negation.  But  it  is  the  quality  not  the  quantity 
of  a  cognition  that  determines  its  validity.  There  is  for  man  no 
exhaustive  or  infinite  knowledge  of  either  the  finite  or  the  in- 
finite. He  finds  it  impossible  to  give  an  all-comprehending  def- 
inition of  time  as  he  does  of  eternity,  of  the  atom  of  matter 
as  of  the  essence  of  God."  Now  it  is  not  merely  the  quantity, 
but  the  quality  of  the  object  about  which  men  have  the  difficulty. 
Their  perception  of  the  ocean  is  a  "  positive  perception  "  because 
it  has  been  or  can  be  an  object  of  experience — of  real  contact 
with  their  organs  of  consciousness  —  and  consequently  their 
cognition  of  the  reality  of  the  ocean,  being  a  real  cognition  of 
quality,  is  valid  notwithstanding  the  incomprehensibility  of  the 
quantity  of  the  object.  But  God  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  like  the 
ocean — an  object  of  sensuous  experience,  of  real  contact  with 
sensuous  organs  of  consciousness — and  consequently  on  mere 
empirical  grounds  they  must  deny  the  possibility  of  a  "  posi- 
tive perception  "  of  God,  and  declare  the  cognition  of  Him  a 
"  mere  negation."  In  some  way,  therefore,  the  cognition  of  God 
must  involve  real  experience — real  contact  of  the  object  with 
organs  of  consciousness  —  though  not  sensuous  but  spiritual 
experience  and  contact,  if  it  be  a  "  positive  perception."  If  the 
cognition  of  the  supernatural  be  the  result  of  insights  of  the 
reason,  just  as  the  cognition  of  the  natural  is  the  result  of  in- 
tuitions in  the  sense,  then  it  is  true  th^t  we  have  a  positive 
knowledge  of  God  as  much  as  we  have  a  positive  knowledge  of 
the  ocean,  and  the  incomprehensibility  in  the  former  case  no 
more  invalidates  the  reality  of  our  knowledge  than  it  does  in 
the  latter.  But  if  this  be  so  then  the  reason  must  be  faculty  for 
the  supernatural  as  much  as  the  sense  is  capacity  for  the  natu- 
ral, and  if  there  is  a  "  positive  perception  "  of  the  supernatural 
it  must  come  into  contact  with  the  faculty  for  it,  just  as  in  the 
case  of  a  positive  perception  of  the  natural  it  comes  into  contact 
with  the  capacity  for  it;  and  both  involve  experience — the  knowl- 
edge of  the  finite,  natural,  that  of  the  infinite,  spiritual  experi- 
ence. 

Nothing  short  of  the  inner  certainty  inculcated  by  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  Reformation,  involving  as  it  does  the  experience  of 
the  revelation  of  God  to  man  and  of  the  witness  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  the  heart,  will  meet  the  requirement.     And  this  ex- 


200  KNOWABLENESS    AND    INCOMPREHENSIDILITY. 

eludes  the  doctrine  of  an  adequate  and  comprehensive  knowl- 
edge of  God ;  but  it  requires  a  real  and  true,  a  vital  and  a  satis- 
factory, knowledge  of  Him.  Faith  on  the  one  hand  presupposes 
the  incomprehensibility  of  the  divine  essence — for  if  it  did  not 
it  would  not  be  faith,  but  mere  knowledge ;  and  on  the  other  its 
knowableness,  because  without  this  it  would  be  mere  supersti- 
tion. It  is  only  from  experience  that  a  truly  positive  conception 
can  spring.  Luther's  realism — his'  inner  certainty  through  faith 
— presupposes  a  real  contact  of  the  object  of  faith  with  organs 
of  consciousness  (of  course  not  sensuous)  with  the  soul  through 
the  external  divine  revelation  and  the  internal  witnessing  of  the 
spirit,  and  consequently  the  resulting  conception  is  a  positive 
one.  It  is  an  insight  of  the  reason,  made  practicable  by  God's 
revelation  of  Himself  to  man.  There  is  a  real  cognition  of  God; 
and  we  have  thus  a  true  though  not  an  adequate  knowledge  of 
God.  It  is  the  cognition  of  God  in  His  personal  attributes  : 
and,  at  the  same  time,  faith  involves  the  conception  of  Him  as 
absolute  spirit.  Man  has  susceptibility  for  God,  can  know  God 
if  He  be  revealed,  and  faith  recognizes  God  as  revealing  Him- 
self in  the  creation  and  history  of  the  world.  According  to 
Luther  it  combines  the  certainty  —  which  is  on  a  level  with 
eternal  truths — with  the  humility  resulting  from  the  sense  of 
absolute  dependence  on  the  object  of  faith.  It  combines,  there- 
fore, the  two  ideas  of  the  knowableness  and  the  incomprehensi- 
bility of  God.  On  the  one  hand  its  language  is  :  "  No  man  hath 
seen  God  at  any  time :  the  only  begotten  Son  who  is  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath  revealed  Him."  "Who  only  hath 
immortality,  dwelling  in  light  which  no  man  can  approach  unto, 
whom  no  man  hath  seen  or  can  see,  to  whom  be  honor  and 
power  everlasting,  Amen."  "Now  ;into  the  King  eternal,  im- 
mortal, invisible,  the  only  wise  God,  be  honor  and  glory  forever, 
Amen."  But  on  the  other,  it  distinctly  recognizes  in  nature  and 
providence  the  marks  of  Him  who  witnesses  in  the  spirit,  rec- 
ognizes Him  as  revealed  unto  men  in  the  works  of  His  hands. 
"  Because  the  invisible  things  of  Him  from  the  creation  of  the 
world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things  that  are 
made,  even  His  eternal  power  and  godhead."  It  recognizes  a 
special  revelation  declaring  the  existence  of  the  God  after  whom 
men  naturally  yearn.  "  Whom  ye  ignorantly  worship.  Him  de- 
clare I  unto  you."     "In  the  beginning  was  the  Word  and  the 


FAITH    KNOWS    GOD    AND    ADORES.  201 

Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God,  all  things  were 
made  by  Him."  It  recognizes  Him  as  making  Himself  known 
by  a  direct  operation — by  "  an  impinging  of  Himself  upon  the 
rational  soul  of  His  creatures,"  or  in  the  words  of  Augustine 
"perculisti  cor,  verbo  tuo."  It  recognizes  God  as  not  only  the 
self-conscious,  but  self-revealing  God — the  God  who  creates  and 
reveals  Himself  in  creating.  "  In  Him  was  life  and  the  life  was 
the  light  of  men."  Thoroughly  self-conscious  and  perfectly  man- 
ifest to  Himself — in  Him  all  life  is  light — "in  Him  is  no  dark- 
ness at  all" — the  eternal  Logos  is  the  light  that  lighteth  every 
man  that  cometh  into  the  world.  This  Word  was  in  the  world, 
and  the  world  was  made  by  Him,  and  the  world  knew  Him  not. 
"The  light  shineth  in  the  darkness,  and  the  darkness  compre- 
hended it  not."  "  He  came  to  His  own,  and  His  own  received 
Him  not."  It  ascribes  the  ignorance  of  man  to  his  depravity, 
as  resulting  from  the  love  of  sin.  Men  held  the  truth  in  un- 
righteousness, or  rather,  hindered  the  truth  by  their  unright- 
eousness; men  were  alienated  from  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul — 
from  the  life  which  is  the  light  of  men — by  the  blindness  of 
their  hearts,  by  their  moral  depravity.  It  recognizes  God  as 
revealing  Himself  in  history,  beginning  with  the  fall  of  man, 
giving  clearer  and  clearer  manifestations,  more  and  more  im- 
pressive testimonies  of  wisdom,  power  and  goodness,  more  and 
more  striking  signs  of  His  presence  in  word  and  symbol, 
prophecy  and  miracle;  and,  at  last,  the  eternal  Word  Himself 
becoming  flesh  and  dwelling  among  men  exhibited  His  glory, 
as  the  glory  of  the  Only-begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace 
and  truth.  In  Him  it  recognizes  the  revelation  of  the  father- 
hood of  God.  "  To  as  many  as  received  Him,  to  them  gave 
He  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God."  It  recognizes  the 
Father  in  the  Son  who  could  say :  "  He  that  seeth  Me  hath 
seen  the  Father."  In  the  life  of  faith,  therefore,  which  we  re- 
ceive from  Him,  is  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  God  ;  and 
thus  God  makes  Himself  known.  But  this,  so  far  from  remov- 
ing the  incomprehensibility  and  unsearchableness  of  God,  only 
impresses  us  the  more  with  the  presence  of  a  fullness  which 
transcends  all  knowledge.  "  Oh  !  the  depths  of  the  riches  of 
both  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God !  How  unsearchable 
are  His  judgments  and  His  ways  past  finding  out !  "  The  more 
we  know,  the  more  reason  have  we  to  adore  His  unfathomable 


202  KNOWABLENESS    AND    INCOMPREHENSIBILITY. 

and  sovereign  being,  His  self-existent  and  self-sufficient  nature 
"  For  who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the  Lord,  or  who  hath  been 
His  counsellor  ?  Who  hath  first  given  unto  Him  that  it  may  be 
recompensed  again  ?  For  of  Him  and  through  Him  and  to 
Him  are  all  things ;  to  whom  be  glory  forever.     Amen." 

§  2.   Objections  to  the  Knoivablencss  of  God  Ansivercd. 

Faith,  though  it  is  limited  in  its  idea  by  the  adorable  mystery 
of  the  divine  existence,  yet  has  a  real  and  true  knowledge  of 
God.  It  has  necessarily  produced  the  Christian  idea  of  God, 
namely :  that  God  is  knowable,  though  not  comprehensible. 
And  this  idea  that  the  human  mind  is  receptive  of  such  divine 
knowledge  is  not  contradictory  to  the  human  reason.  The 
heathen's  altar  is  to  the  "unknown,"  the  Christian's  to  the 
known  God. 

If  it  be  objected  that  all  knowledge  of  God  is  impossible, 
because  we  cannot  make  any  image  of  Him  to  the  imagination, 
or  any  representation  of  Him  in  the  understanding,  we  may 
answer,  in  the  light  of  the  Christian  idea,  that  this  objection 
presupposes  that  we  really  know  nothing  but  what  can  be  an 
object  of  sense.  But  we  do  cognize  as  realities  what  cannot  be 
thus  known.  There  is  an  element  of  knowledge  which  is  not 
of  the  sense  or  of  the  understanding  judging  merely  according 
to  the  sense.  We  are  rational  beings,  and,  as  such,  have  knowl- 
edge of  the  supersensuous.  God  cannot,  in  the  nature  of  the 
case,  be  an  object  of  perception  through  the  sense.  As  He 
transcends  space  and  time.  He  cannot  be  comprehended  in  any 
of  the  forms  of  space  and  time — cannot  be  defined  by  any  ope- 
ration of  the  sense.  The  idea  of  Him  is  a  reason-conception. 
It  is  by  no  intuition  of  the  sense,  but  by  an  insight  of  the 
reason,  that  we  cognize  Him.  Faith,  in  this  case,  presents  an 
object  which  is  in  agreement  with  the  idea  of  the  reason,  or,  at 
least,  not  in  contradiction  with  it.  The  knowledge  of  the 
object  involved  cannot  be  regarded  as  impossible.  It  is  not  the 
understanding,  but  the  reason,  in  man  which  responds  to  faith. 

To  the  objection  that  the  idea  of  God  is  a  mere  negative  idea, 
that  all  divine  attributes  are  mere  negations,  we  answer  that 
while  to  the  sense-conception  they  are  mere  negations,  to  the 
reason-conception  they  are  positive  affirmations.  While  to  the 
one  eternity  is  the  negation  of  time,  and  simplicity  the  negation 


NEITHER    NEGATIVE    NOR    CONTRADICTORY.  203 

of  space,  to  the  other,  these  attributes  are  affirmations  of  posi- 
tive being — but  being  which  transcends  space  and  time.  As 
the  ideas  of  intelHgence  and  power  are  positive  conceptions,  so 
are  those  of  omniscience  and  omnipotence ;  for  if  we  have 
experience  of  the  one,  we  have  also  of  the  other;  though  in 
neither  case  have  we  a  sensuous,  but  only  a  spiritual,  experi- 
ence. There  is  in  each  case  a  real  though  a  spiritual  contact  of 
the  object  of  knowledge  with  organs  of  consciousness.  Faith 
in  God  is  faith  in  a  real  existence ;  and  the  idea  arising  from  it 
is  that  of  a  positive  being. 

It  is  often  said,  in  these  days,  that  the  idea  of  God  involves  a 
contradiction,  because  infinite  attributes  in  one  and  the  same 
subject  must  be  in  contradiction;  such  as  infinite  justice  and 
infinite  goodness,  infinite  freedom  and  infinite  wisdom,  infinite 
power  and  infinite  knowledge.  But  the  charge  of  contradiction 
in  these  attributes  overlooks  the  fact  that  infinity  in  God  refers 
not  to  space  and  time;- not  to  extensity,  but  to  intensity;  not  to 
quantity,  but  to  quality.  It  is  infinite  perfection,  infinite  moral 
excellence  of  being.  And  in  this  each  attribute  is  in  every 
other;  the  essence  in  the  attributes,  and  the  attributes  in  the 
essence;  omnipotence  is  intelligent,  and  intelligence  is  omnipo- 
tent. Liberty  is  the  power  to  act  according  to  reason  ;  it  is 
rational  power — the  power  of  reason;  and  infinite  freedom  is 
the  power  to  act  according  to  infinite  reason  ;  it  is  infinite 
rational  power — the  power  of  infinite  reason.  Infinite  reason  in 
the  infinite  spirit,  the  absolute  person,  does,  indeed,  make  the 
movements  of  infinite  power  morally  certain,  but  by  no  means 
necessary  either  physically  or  metaphysically  or  logically.  The 
certainty  in  the  exercise  of  infinite  power  is  the  perfection,  not 
the  necessity  of  action. 

The  great  objection  of  modern  times  is  this:  Our  conception 
of  God  involves  a  contradiction,  because  infinity  excludes  all 
limitation,  and  personality  implies  limitation ;  so  that  if  God  be 
infinite  He  cannot  be  personal,  and  if  He  be  personal  He  cannot 
be  infinite.  But  the  conception  of  God  being  a  reason-concep- 
tion, there  is  no  contradiction  in  the  idea  of  infinite  or  absolute 
personality.  All  space  being  excluded,  the  infinity  is  not  exten- 
sion, and  the  limitation  implied  by  personality  is  not  limitation 
ad  extra,  not  limitation  by  another,  but  self-limitation — if  limita- 
tion in  any  sense — only  self-limitation,  self-consciousness,  self- 


204  KNOWABLENESS    AND    INCOMPREHENSIBILITY. 

possession,  self-control.  God  would  not  be  perfect  in  knowledge 
if  He  were  not  self-conscious,  if  He  did  not  comprehend  Him- 
self; and  He  would  not  be  infinite  in  power  if  He  could  not 
control  His  power.  Indeed,  it  is  only  in  His  self-controlling 
that  we  have  the  positive  idea  of  the  Absolute.  We  may  re- 
gard this  conclusion  as  resulting  psychologically  from  the  fact 
that  all  knowledge  is  not  limited  to  the  sense.  And  this  knowl- 
edge being  necessarily  a  reason-cognition,  is,  in  reference  to 
certainty,  on  a  level  with  all  ideas  of  the  reason,  is  equally 
certain  with  that  of  freedom  and  responsibility.  We  do  not  say 
that  the  unassisted  reason  of  man  would  have  either  developed 
itself,  or  this  idea  from  itself;  but  it  is  an  idea  which  springs 
from  the  relation  of  man  to  God;  it  is  man's  normal  state  to 
cognize  the  being  of  God;  and  faith  consequently,  being  pro- 
duced by  the  revelation  of  God,  necessarily  produces  in  turn 
the  idea  of  God.  "Against  the  belief  in  the  personality  of 
God,"  says  Martensen,  "pantheism  has  always  objected  that  the 
ideas  '  absolute'  and  '  personal '  contradict  each  other.  As  the 
absolute,  unconditioned,  unlimited  being,  God  must  be  one  and 
all ;  as  a  person,  He  can  only  be  conceived  as  limited,  bounded 
by  a  world  which  is  not  part  of  Himself;  and  this  is  opposed  to 
the  idea  of  the  Absolute.  We  cannot  allow,  however,  that  this 
contradiction  really  exists.  The  existence  of  created  beings 
distinct  from  God,  is  not  such  a  limit  as  to  clash  with  the  idea 
of  a  perfect  being.  When  pantheism  calls  the  omnipresent 
Creator  of  heaven  and  earth  a  limited  being,  it  forgets  that  the 
limitation  in  question,  so  far  as  it  deserves  the  name,  is  self-lim- 
itation, and  that  self-limitation  is  inseparable  from  a  perfect 
nature.  The  inward  fullness  of  the  divine  essence  is  reflected  in 
the  inner  infinitude  of  the  divine  self-consciousness,  and  God 
thus  has  possession  of  Himself  and  the  fullness  of  His  being. 
An  all-perfect  being  which  should  be  unaware  of  His  own  per- 
fection, would  lack  a  very  essential  element  of  perfection.  God 
limits  His  own  power  by  calling  into  existence,  out  of  the  depths 
of  His  own  eternal  life,  a  world  of  created  beings  to  whom  He 
gives,  in  a  derivative  manner,  to  have  life  in  themselves.  But 
precisely  in  this  way  above  all  others — that  He  is  omnipotent 
over  a  free  world — does  God  reveal  the  inner  greatness  of  His 
power  most  clearly.  That  is  no  true  power  which  refuses  to 
tolerate  any  free  movement  outside  of  itself,  because  it  is  re- 


DEVIATIONS  FROM  THE  TRUE  IDEA.  205 

solved  to  be  and  to  do  everything  directly  and  by  itself;  that  is 
true  power  which  brings  free  agents  into  existence,  and  is,  not- 
withstanding, able  to  make  itself  all  in  all."  God  is  in  no 
necessary  relations,  but  it  belongs  to  His  perfection  that  He  can 
put  Himself  into  relations,  can,  out  of  abounding  love  and  in 
perfect  wisdom  and  with  highest  worthiness  of  Himself,  create 
and  govern  a  world  of  finite  beings. 

§  3.   The  Danger  of  Incorrect  Vicivs  of  this  Subject. 

This  topic  respecting  the  union  of  the  knowableness  and  the 
incomprehensibility  of  God,  as  we  have  it  in  the  idea  required 
by  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  is  here  brought  to  notice, 
because  there  have  always  been  deviations  from  it  not  only  in 
the  secular  mind  but  also  in  that  of  the  Church.  In  the  early 
Church  there  was  connected  with  the  conviction  of  the  being  of 
God  the  acknowledgment  of  His  incomprehensibility ;  and  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  the  Scholastics  generally  distinguished  between 
the  apprehensibility  and  the  comprehensibility  of  God.  They 
said  we  could  apprehend  God,  but  not  comprehend  Him.  But 
there  has  always  been  a  tendency  toward  the  separation  of 
these  two  ideas,  and  toward  the  denial  of  one  or  the  other  of 
them.  Thus,  before  the  Reformation,  the  Nominalistic  party 
were  led,  by  their  philosophical  principles,  to  deny  the  knowa- 
bleness of  God ;  while  others,  such  as  John  Scotus  Erigena, 
asserted  the  absolute  unknowableness  of  God — asserted  that 
God  did  not  even  know  Himself  and,  consequently  could  not  be 
known  by  us.  On  the  other  hand  the  Mystics  taught  that,  by 
means  of  the  life  of  love  in  God,  we  could  contemplate  Him 
immediately  and  clearly  in  His  own  light.  The  Arians,  and 
especially  the  Eunomian  party  among  them — against  the  appeal 
to  the  unsearchableness  of  God  in  defense  of  the  mystery  of 
the  trinity  on  the  part  of  their  opponents — asserted  that  we 
could  comprehend  God  as  completely  as  we  can  an  object  of 
sense.  Since  the  Reformation  the  older  theologians  of  our 
Church  adhered  to  the  union  of  these  two  ideas ;  but  one  of  the 
results  of  disconnecting  philosophical  and  theological  thought 
from  the  experience  of  faith,  is  that  these  different  views  have 
been  brought  into  complete  antagonism ;  and  one  or  the  other 
has  been  denied,  according  to  the  different  philosophies  respect- 
ing the  relation  of  idea  and  being.     The  Kantians,  making  all 


206  KNOWABLENESS    AND    INCOMPREHENSIBILITY. 

our  knowledge  purely  subjective,  deny  that  we  can  cognize  the 
objective  reality  of  our  idea  of  God  ;  the  Hegelians,  on  the  con- 
trary, making  the  idea  the  only  reality,  contend  that  we  have  in 
the  idea  all  being  in  its  absolute  truth,  and,  consequently,  the 
knowledge  of  God.  In  more  recent  times  the  School  of  Abso- 
lute Idealism  and  that  of  Materialism  as  represented,  the  one 
by  Von  Hartman,  the  other  by  Duehring,  proposing  as  the 
function  of  philosophy  the  exposition  of  the  universe,  contend 
for  the  knowableness  of  Gcd ;  the  former,  as  "  unconscious 
mind ;"  the  latter,  as  "  blind  force."  While,  on  the  other  hand, 
in  the  Critical  School — the  School  of  Kant — there  are,  in  regard 
to  this  point,  two  parties,  yet  both  deny  the  knowableness  of 
God ;  the  one  simply  declaring  that  the  idea  of  the  divine  ex- 
istence is  an  absurdity  to  the  intellect,  but  that  it  may  and  ought 
to  be  believed  on  the  authority  of  the  Bible ;  the  other  holding 
the  doctrine  of  absolute  nescie?ice,  and  declaring  it  to  be  absurd, 
yea,  impossible  to  believe  the  reality  of  any  thing  but  the 
"  theory  of  knowledge"  itself;  that  we  know  not  a  knower  or  a 
known,  that  we  know  only  the  knowing  and  not  the  supposed 
objects  of  knowledge ;  and  that,  consequently,  all  idea  of  a 
knowledge  of  God  is  an  absurdity,  and  all  faith  in  the  valid 
being  of  God,  a  mere  superstition.  These  results  show  the 
importance  of  keeping  in  view  the  Christian  idea  of  God,  as  it  is 
revealed  in  the  Scriptures ;  and,  especially,  as  it  necessarily 
springs  up  in  the  mind  from  the  experience  of  saving  faith,  the 
idea  which  is  inseparable  from  a  thorough  appropriation  of  the 
principle  of  the  Reformation. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE  SOURCE  AND  GROUND  OF  OUR  BELllilf  IN  GOD,  IN  THE  LIGHT 
OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  OF  GOD  AND  THE  WORLD  AS  THUS 
APPREHENDED. 

§    I .    Its   Opposition  to  the  Notion   that  our  Belief  in    God 
Originates  from  any  Denioristrations  of  the  mere  Logical 
Understajidinz. 

This  belief  springs  up  in  humanity  from  the  relation  of  its 
constitution  to  its  environment,  and  this  involves  divine  impres- 
sions. Man  has  an  original  sense  of  the  divine  existence  which 
can  be  explained  only  on  the  supposition  that  the  infinite  Spirit 
having  made  the  finite  Spirit  for  Himself  has  placed  it  in  the 
closest  relationship  with  Himself,  and  immediately  manifests  His 
presence  in  it,  and  that  He  reveals  Himself  historically  to  it. 
From  this  contact  of  divine  revelation  with  the  soul,  originates 
faith  in  God.  The  God-consciousness  is  inseparable  from  the 
self-consciousness  and  the  inner  receptivity  is  attended  by  an 
external  revelation.  Hence,  the  Sacred  Scriptures  do  not  prove 
that  God  is,  but  only  show  us  what  He  is.  They  refer  to  nature 
simply  as  leading  to  this  knowledge  of  Him. 

Belief  in  its  most  primitive  form  precedes  all  logical  demon- 
strations. Man  is  brought  to  believe  in  God  in  the  first  instance, 
not  by  reasoning  in  the  understanding  simply,  but  by  the  dic- 
tates of  consciousness,  by  impressions  upon  the  religious  sus- 
ceptibilities. This  belief  is  not  the  result  but  the  source  of 
our  reasoning  in  regard  to  God.  It  cannot  in  the  nature  of  the 
case  be  a  logical  demonstration.  So  thought  the  Reformers  ; 
but  after  the  doctrines  of  religion  were  made  purely  questions 
of  intellect,  the  older  Rationalists  had  such  confidence  in  the 
practicability  of  giving  a  rational  demonstration  of  the  religious 
ideas,  God,  freedom  and  immortality — supposed  themselves  to 
be  in  possession  of  such  irrefragable  proofs  of  the  being  and 
attributes  of  God — that  they  could  not  realize  the  necessity  of  a 
special,  miraculous  revelation  of  His  nature  and  will.     But  the 

(207) 


20b  SOURCE    AND    GROUND    OF    OUR    BELIEF    IN    GOD, 

Critical  Philosophy  attacked  the  validity  of  all  demonstrative 
proofs  of  the  divine  existence  ;  and  the  Faith  Philosophy  of 
Jacobi  declared  "that  a  God  who  can  be  proved,  is  no  God;  for 
the  ground  of  proof  is  necessarily  above  the  thing  proved." 

Now  Kant  evidently  went  too  far  when  he  declared  that  the 
speculative  reason  has  no  capacity  for  the  idea  and  proof  of  the 
divine  existence,  and  Jacobi  no  doubt  confounds  the  ground  of 
the  proof  of  the  idea  with  the  ground  of  the  reality,  when  he 
supposes  that  the  attempt  to  prove  the  truth  of  our  idea  of  God 
is  the  attempt  to  find  a  ground  higher  than  God  Himself  But 
the  important  lesson  to  be  learned  from  these  difficulties  is,  that 
our  idea  of  God  does  not  need  demonstration ;  that  the  divine 
existence  is  not  so  much  proved  by  us  as  that  it  manifests 
itself  to  us.  The  several  rational  proofs  are  rather  an  interpre- 
tation of  the  belief  already  existing,  an  analysis  of  what  is  in 
the  Christian  consciousness,  than  a  logical  demonstration  of  it. 
As  the  subjective  truth  of  all  knowledge  is  based  upon  our 
necessary  confidence  in  the  laws  of  our  intellectual  faculties, 
proofs  of  this  kind  consist  in  showing  that  the  thing  be- 
lieved is  not  in  contradiction  with  the  faculty  of  knowing — 
that  is,  that  it  is  not  inconsistent  with  reason.  "  The  various 
proofs  of  the  existence  of  God,  though  now  acknowledged  gen- 
erally to  be  invalid  in  a  syllogistic  point  of  view,  are  profoundly 
significant  as  indicating  the  general  starting-points  of  the  devel- 
opment of  the  idea  of  God  primarily  dwelling  in  the  human 
mind."  They  show  that  the  belief,  which  has  resulted  from  the 
contact  of  the  primitive  susceptibility  of  man  for  God  with  the 
general  and  special  revelation  which  He  has  given,  is  rational 
and  satisfactory. 

§  2.   T/ic  Nature  of  the  Several  Proofs  of  the  Divine  Existence. 

Thus  the  ontological  argument,  from  the  idea  of  the  absolute, 
draws  the  conclusion  that  it  actually  exists.  The  mind  has  the 
idea  of  the  most  perfect  being ;  an  especial  element  of  the  most 
perfect  being  is  existence:  therefore,  there  must  be  an  actually 
existing  most  perfect  being.  Now  we  may  object  to  Anselm's 
notion  that  the  necessity  and  uniqueness  of  this  idea  involve 
the  proof  of  the  actual  existence  of  God ;  we  may  say  that  this 
argument  lacks  demonstrative  validity,  because  the  major  prop- 
sition  embraces   only   ideal   while    the  conclusion    affirms    real 


THE    PROOFS    OF    THE    DIVINE    EXISTENCE.  2O9 

existence.  Still  the  proof  has  a  deep  ground  in  reason.  It 
shows  what  reason  demands  ;  that  it  tends  to  rise  from  the  con- 
ditioned to  the  unconditioned,  from  the  imperfect  to  the  perfect, 
from  relative  to  absolute  perfection.  And  while  it  does  not  fol- 
low from  this  that  the  idea  must  be  objectively  realized  in  an 
actually  existing  being,  it  does  follow  from  it  that  the  idea  given 
us  of  God  is  natural  and  unavoidable,  and  that  we  have  the 
same  reason  to  believe  in  the  reality  of  the  object  of  this  idea 
that  we  have  for  that  of  any  other  reason-conception.  Besides, 
the  striving  of  reason  after  perfection,  and  the  dictate  of  con- 
science making  this  our  duty,  while  both  make  the  idea  of  God 
the  highest  point  of  this  attainment,  render  it  highly  probable 
that  there  is  an  actual  being  who  is  the  source  and  end  of  this 
striving.  This  tendency  would  otherwise  be  at  least  unac- 
countable. 

As  the  ontological  proof  demands  an  absolute  being  as  the 
objective  reality  of  its  idea,  so  the  cosmological  argument  re- 
quires an  absolute  substance  as  the  ground  of  the  world  of 
sense.  It  is  based  upon  the  mutable  contingent  nature  of  the 
world.  Everything  which  occurs  in  time  appears  as  the  effect 
of  a  previous  cause,  but  such  cause  appears  again  as  depend- 
ent upon  a  previous  one,  and  so  on  in  an  endless  regress.  But 
the  mind  cannot  rest  upon  any  such  connection  of  cause  and 
effect,  cannot  comprehend  the  one  in  the  other ;  and  the  world 
being  nothing  but  such  a  series  of  causes  and  effects,  it  con- 
cludes that  it  is  not  a  necessary  but  contingent  existence,  has 
hot  its  ground  of  being  in  itself,  but  in  another  being,  must  be 
traced  to  another  and  a  higher  than  itself  Or  the  argument 
may  say :  The  world  is  made  up  of  finite  beings,  and  the  whole 
thus  consisting  altogether  of  finitudes,  must  itself  be  finite.  It 
consists  of  nature  and  mind,  each  limited  by  the  other,  and 
neither  producing  the  other,  and  each  pointing  to  an  infinite 
ground  of  itself 

As  the  cosmological  argument  demands  an  infinite  substance, 
the  teleological  or  physico-theological  proof  requires  an  infinite 
understanding.  It  infers  from  the  adaptations  in  nature  a  de- 
signing understanding ;  from  the  order  and  beauty  of  the  visi- 
ble world,  a  rational  mind.  The  Avorld  presents  the  spectacle  of 
an  endless  diversity  of  objects,  the  most  varied  forms  of  order 
and  beauty,  and  adaptation-  to  definite  ends.  This  adaptation  is 
14 


2IO      SOURCE  AND  GROUND  OF  OUR  BELIEF  IN  GOD 

not  grounded  in  the  things  themselves,  because  rational  ends 
can  have  their  last  ground  only  in  rational  mind,  in  an  intelli- 
gence which  cannot  be  ascribed  to  nature,  cannot  be  found  in 
its  blindly  operating  forces. 

As  the  teleological  demands  an  infinite  understanding,  so  the 
psychological  argument  requires  an  infinite  spirit.  From  the 
finite  human  spirit,  it  infers  an  infinite  divine  spirit.  Man  is 
self-conscious,  personal  soul,  that  is,  he  is  spirit.  But  the  indi- 
vidual member  of  the  human  family  is  finite,  and  the  whole  of 
the  humanity  to  which  he  belongs  is  finite.  It  has  neither  its 
ground  nor  its  end  in  itself.  The  human  spirit — not  having  the 
ground  and  end  of  its  being  in  itself,  nor  in  the  world  of  nature, 
nor  in  the  kingdom  of  finite  spirits — demands  an  infinite  spirit 
as  ground  and  end  of  itself,  of  the  world,  of  humanity. 

The  Moral  Argument  derived  from  the  practical  reason  as  de- 
fined in  the  Critical  Philosophy,  developed  under  the  influence 
of  the  categorical  imperative  in  man,  is  thus  stated  by  Kant 
himself:  "  The  highest  good  of  man  consists  of  two  parts,  the 
greatest  possible  morality  and  the  greatest  possible  happiness. 
The  former  is  the  demand  of  his  spiritual,  the  latter  of  his 
animal  nature.  The  former  only,  his  morality,  is  within  his 
own  power ;  and  while  by  persevering  virtue  he  makes  this  his 
personal  character,  he  is  often  obliged  to  sacrifice  his  happiness. 
But  since  the  desire  of  happiness  is  neither  irrational  nor  unnat- 
ural, he  justly  concludes  either  that  there  is  a  supreme  being 
who  will  so  guide  the  course  of  things  (the  natural  world  not  of 
itself  subject  to  moral  laws)  as  to  render  his  holiness  and  hap- 
piness equal,  or  that  the  dictates  of  conscience  are  unjust  and 
irrational.  But  the  latter  supposition  is  morally  impossible ; 
and  he  is  compelled,  therefore,  to  receive  the  former  as  true." 

§  3.  Tlicir  Insufficiency  as  Logical  Demonstrations. 
These  arguments,  however,  only  prove  absolute  being,  infinite 
substance,  infinite  understanding,  infinite  reason,  infinite  moral- 
ity ;  and  aside  from  the  experience  of  faith  in  the  personal  living 
God,  aside  from  the  influence  of  the  revelation  of  Himself — the 
objective  revelation  and  the  subjective  experience  of  its  reality, 
the  inner  witness  of  the  Spirit — all  these  proofs  of  His  being, 
separated  from  consciousness  and  life,  and  treated  merely  as  ab- 
stract arguments,  may  be  turned,  and  are  turned  by  Pantheism, 


THE    NECESSITY    OF   A    BASIS    IN    EXPERIENCE.  2 1  I 

to  subserve  its  purposes.  Thus  from  the  cosmological  argu- 
ment it  gets  simply  the  idea  of  universal  being,  and  regards  the 
Deity  as  the  life  of  the  universe,  which  is  perpetually  originating 
and  perpetually  annihilating  contingent  existences.  There  is  no 
real  world;  God  is  the  All.  In  the  ontological  argument  the 
pantheist  simply  turns  from  every  determinate  form  of  thought 
to  God  as  the  eternal  ground  of  thought.  He  treats  God  as 
pure  truth — the  tj'uth  in  tvhich  all  finite  thinking  is  to  be  absorbed ; 
and  again  God  is  merely  the  All.  In  the  teleological  process 
he  regards  all  the  vital  forces  of  the  world  as  the  self-realizing 
of  the  absolute  idea  or  God.  God  is  merely  the  indwelling  soul, 
the  all-ruling  Spirit,  the  formative  activity  of  the  universe — the 
Spirit  which  evolves  itself,  is  result  of  itself  God  and  the 
world  are  but  tivo  aspects  of  one  and  the  same  unity ;  either  of 
the  absolute  sjibstance,  with  Spinoza ;  or  of  the  absolute  ego, 
with  Fichte;  or  of  the  absolute /('/tv////)',  with  Schelling;  or  of 
the  absolute  Idea,  with  Hegel ;  or  of  blind  Will,  with  Schopen- 
hauer; or  of  unconscious  Intelligence,  with  Von  Hartman.  There 
is  in  reality  no  distinction,  no  contrast  of  being.  All  is  Monism. 
In  the  moral  proof,  God  is  to  the  pantheist,  the  moral  order 
of  the  zvorld.  "  He  has  real  existence  only  as  he  is  produced 
by  02ir  moral  endeavors ;  zvhat  the  God-inspired  man  does,  is 
God ;  God  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  are  one!'  God  as  a  Spirit 
is  the  restdt  of  the  development  of  the  zvorld;  as  a  Spirit  He 
did  not  exist  independently  of  it ;  as  a  Spirit,  He  zvas  not  its 
Creator.  He  is  unconscious  mind  unfolding  itself  with  instinct- 
ive necessity  in  successive  developments  in  nature  and  history; 
pressing  onward  in  the  finite  spirit  of  man  in  an  eternal  pro- 
gressus  toward  real  existence,  but  never  attaining  it ;  always 
striving  for  existence  as  a  spirit,  but  never  reaching  it  in  its  full- 
ness. It  is  only  through  the  medium  of  the  spirit  of  man — 
through  human  science — that  he  is  becoming,  gradually  becom- 
ing, conscious  of  the  unconscious  movements  which  He  made, 
the  blind  acts  which  He  put  forth  in  the  formation  of  the  world, 
of  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  plant,  animal  and  man. 

§  4.    TJie  Importance  of  Keeping  Within  the  light  of  Experience. 
Thus  may  all   these  proofs  as  a  mere  intellectual  process  be 
turned  by  Naturalism  into  mere  proofs  of  blind  force,  or  by  Pan- 
theism  into  mere  arGfuments  for  unconscious  mind.     The  belief 


212  SOURCE   AND    GROUND    OF    OUR    BELIEF    IN   GOD. 

of  a  conscious  as  well  as  intelligent  cause  of  the  world,  must 
be  kept  inseparable  from  the  impressions  which  God's  revelation 
of  Himself  has  made  upon  us,  inseparable  from  the  experience 
of  His  gracious  presence  through  the  gospel  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  from  conscious  assurance  of  salvation  by  faith  in  Christ. 
Just  as  the  idea  of  God — to  be  a  positive  conception — must 
have  a  basis  in  experience,  so  must  the  proofs  of  the  divine 
existence  have  such  a  connection  in  order  to  have  conclusive 
force  in  establishing  the  truth  of  tlje  existence  of  God  as  a 
personal  being.  And  tlie  specific  and  only  experience  in  religion, 
in  luhich  there  is  certainty  of  tnitJi,  is  that  involved  in  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  Reformation.  "  The  ontological  and  moral  view 
thus  acquires  profounder  significance.  That  eternal  something, 
without  the  pre-supposition  of  whose  existence  human  thought 
is  an  insoluble  riddle,  is  the  thinking  energy,  the  true  God 
(Deus  verax)  who  pervades  all  spirits,  leads  them  to  wisdom, 
and  scatters  all  deception  and  seeming.  And  the  obligations 
we  feel  we  are  under  to  fulfill  the  law  written  in  our  heart  (Rom. 
ii.  14),  is  in  its  deepest  roots  an  obligation  to  obey  the  personal 
will,  the  holy  being  who  speaks  to  us  through  our  conscience, 
and  thus  reveals  Himself  as  the  invisible  One,  in  conjunction 
with  whom  we  know  what  we  know  (con-sciens)."  If  the  belief 
in  God,  in  the  true  God,  the  personal,  living  God,  is  to  be  main- 
tained, we  must  make  room  and  way  for  His  operations  upon 
men ;  we  must  first  of  all  press  upon  men  the  great  truths  of 
the  gospel  with  full  confidence  in  it  as  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation.  Thus  will  men  be  brought  to  faith  by  actual  experi- 
ence of  His  presence,  by  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and 
multitudes  will  be  converted  and  thus  feel  the  force  of  the 
other  proofs  of  the  divine  existence.  As  Luther  says,  "with 
out  this  Spirit  they  do  not  really  believe  that  God  exists." 
We  should  labor  primarily  for  the  conversion  of  souls,  to  bring 
men  under  the  self-authenticating  truth  of  the  gospel,  to  the 
experience  of  assurance  of  salvation  through  faith  in  Christ, — 
and  not  rely  solely  upon  the  demonstrations  of  the  understanding. 
It  is  in  this  way  that  belief  in  the  living,  personal  God  has  been 
generated  and  in  this  way  it  will  be  maintained;  "  for,"  says  Lu- 
ther, "  zvJiere  God's  gospel  and  Spirit  are,  there  also  tJiere  will 
always  be  believers!' 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  THUS  APPREHENDED  IN  ITS  OPPOSITION  TO 
ALL  SEPARATION  OF  THE  DIVINE  INFINITY  FROM  THE  DIVINE 
SPIRITUALITY. 

§  I.   The  Requirement  of  this  Idea  in  the  Light  of  Saving  Faith 
and  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures. 

Faith  requires  the  Scriptural  idea  of  a  personal  yet  infinite 
spirit.  The  experience  of  the  reality  of  sin  as  sin,  and  of  the 
free  grace  of  God,  requires  the  idea  of  God  as  a  living,  personal 
Being,  the  Creator  and  Preserver,  the  Originator  and  Ruler,  of 
all  things  ;  distinct  in  His  nature  from  the  world,  though  the 
world  is  not  separate  from  Him,  or  independent  of  Him.  This 
theism  is  the  Christian  idea.  Faith  declares  that  God  is  the 
absolute  spirit,  not  the  mere  organific  spirit  of  the  world ;  the 
Creator  of  nature,  not  merely  its  informing  soul ;  the  Author  of 
the  human  spirit,  and  not  merely  its  essence.  Against  the 
Deism  which  apprehends  God,  indeed,  as  transcending  the 
world,  but  as  sustaining  only  an  external  relation  to  it;  against 
the  Pantheism  which  confounds  God  and  the  world;  it  is  in  favor 
of  the  Theism  which  apprehends  Him  as  both  transcendent  and 
immanent,  holding  the  divine  transcendency  over  the  world 
against  Pantheism,  and  the  divine  immanence  i)i  the  world 
against  Deism. 

The  immediate  faith-consciousness,  resulting  from  the  nature 
of  man  in  his  environment,  and  justified  by  the  rational  argu- 
ments for  the  being  of  God,  demands  an  infinite  which  is  spirit, 
and  a  spirit  which  is  infinite.  Justifying  faith,  by  its  element  of 
absolute  dependence,  and  by  its  feeling  of  guilt — of  the  guilt  of 
sin — by  its  implication  that  we  are  moral  creatures,  and  subjects 
of  moral  government,  requires  a  spiritual  infinite — that  is,  it 
presupposes  that  God  is  an  Infinite  Spirit.  So  Abraham  re- 
garded God,  calling  on  the  name  of  the  everlasting  God ;  and 
Paul,  speaking  of  the  everlasting  God,  of  His  eternal  power  and 
Godhead ;  and  the  sweet  singer  of  Israel,  declaring  that  before 

r2i3) 


214  UNION    OF    INFINITY    AND    SPIRITUALITY. 

the  mountains  were  brought  forth,  or  even  the  earth  and  the 
world  were  created,  even  from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  He  is 
God ;  that  of  old  he  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth  and  the 
heavens  are  the  work  of  His  hands ;  that  they  shall  perish,  but 
He  shall  endure ;  that  He  is  the  same,  and  His  years  shall  have 
no  end.  So  the  Evangelical  Prophet,  declaring  that  He  is  the 
first  and  the  last  who  inhabiteth  eternity.  So  Daniel,  declaring 
that  He  is  the  living  God  and  standeth  fast  forever,  that  His 
Kingdom  is  one  that  shall  not  be  .  destroyed,  and  that  His 
dominion  shall  be  even  unto  the  end.  So  believers  under  the 
Old  Covenant,  calling  Him  Elohim,  the  God  of  self-conscious, 
holy  will  and  freedom ;  El  Shaddai,  the  all-sufficient,  sovereign 
good,  the  shield  and  exceeding  great  reward  of  the  soul ;  Je- 
hovah, the  holy,  living  personal,  self-revealing  God.  The  Old 
Testament  designates  Jehovah  as  absolute  personality,  and  in 
the  New,  the  Blessed  Jesus  designates  this  absolute  personality 
as  Spirit.  God  is  a  Spirit.  So  the  saints  in  the  Apostolic 
Church;  Peter  declaring  that  with  Him  one  day  is  as  a  thousand 
years  and  a  thousand  years  as  one  day;  and  Paul,  adoring  Him 
as  the  King  immortal,  invisible,  the  only  wise  God,  who  dwelleth 
in  the  light  unto  which  no  man  can  approach. 

Thus  does  faith  recognize  God  as  the  Creator  of  all,  as  the 
being  who  only  hath  immortality;  who  is  love,  the  perfect,  the 
essential,  the  only  good,  the  father,  the  heavenly  father.  Not 
creator  from  necesssity — inner  or  outer — but  from  His  own  free 
counsel.  All  attributes  in  Him,  and  all  works  of  His  hands 
must  be  traced  to  free,  holy  love.  The  fact  that  He  works,  cre- 
ates worlds  and  conscious  beings,  has  its  ground  in  no  necessity 
— not  even  in  His  essential  infinity  as  such — but  in  the  essential 
and  abounding  love  of  His  spiritual  personal  being.  Creation, 
revelation,  self-communication  to  His  creatures  and  communion 
with  them,  are  all  based  upon  His  free  unconstrained  love  as  a 
spirit,  as  a  person.  He  is  constrained  by  nothing  from  without, 
and  impelled  by  nothing  from  within,  but  acts  from  free  love  and 
wisdom,  doing  what  He  can  accept  as  worthy  of  Himself  The 
God  of  revelation  is  not  the  mere  dark  cause  of  finite  existence; 
not  the  blind  force  of  nature ;  not  unconscious  thought ;  not  in- 
stinctive mind,  but  conscious,  personal  spirit.  He  is  Father  and 
Lord;  He  is  personal,  and  to  His  personality  belong,  not  only 
His  thinking  and  willing  ^the  world  as  distinct  from  the  think- 


IMPERFECT    APPREHENSION    OF    THIS    IDEA.  215 

ing  and  willing  which  are  going  on  in  it,  but  also  all  the  think- 
ing and  willing  performed  by  created  beings,  all  communion  be- 
tween themselves  and  Him,  must  be  regarded  as  possible  only 
because  He  is  personal  being — is  consciously  thinking  and  will- 
ing. And  He  is  not  merely  the  Lord  who  keeps  Himself  dis- 
tinct from  His  subjects,  but  the  Father  who  reconciles  them  to 
Himself  According  to  the  principle  of  faith  and  the  teaching 
of  the  Bible,  God  is  infinite  personality — infinite  spirit,  self-con- 
scious, self-controlled,  self-existent,  and  self-satisfied. 

§  2.    This  Idea  only  Gradually  and  Imperfectly  Apprehended. 

This — the  Christian  idea  of  the  union  of  spirituality  and  in- 
finity in  God — has  been  only  gradually  apprehended  and  but 
imperfectly  appropriated,  even  by  the  Church.  The  thinking 
mind  of  the  Church  has  oscillated  between  the  idea  of  God  as 
absolute  being  ■a.nd  of  Him  as  personal  spirit.  The  early  fathers,  in 
their  effort  to  apprehend  the  Logos  as  the  eternal  reason  of 
God,  were  brought  to  the  practical  recognition  of  the  Christian 
idea  of  the  divine  reason  as  personal,  and  consequently  to  that 
of  the  divine  spirituality.  But  they  were  still  so  far  influenced 
by  the  heathen  philosophy,  by  its  idea  of  God  as  mere  indistin- 
guishable, indeterminate  being,  as  to  fear  to  ascribe  to  Him  any 
defined,  concrete,  determinate  existence,  and  to  hesitate  to  speak 
of  Him  as  a  spirit;  because  spirituality  is  a  determinate  state  of 
being.  We  see  this  in  Origen,  and  in  the  Mystics  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  who  under  the  influence  of  Platonism,  apprehended  God 
as  the  dark  ground  of  being,  and  seemed  to  estimate  the  "  pure 
Deity"  higher  than  the  living  God,  the  God  of  revelation; 
while  the  Scholastics,  under  the  influence  of  Aristotelianism, 
were  led  so  fully  to  conceive  of  God  as  actus  p?trus,  that  they, 
in  a  great  measure,  overlooked  the  concrete  activity  which  is  im- 
plied in  His  spirituality.  This  idea  of  God  as  abstract  being  has 
clung  more  or  less  to  theology,  even  since  the  Reformation.  It 
is,  therefore,  of  supreme  importance  to  return  to  the  positive 
conception  of  God  which  is  required  by  the  principle  of  the  Ref- 
ormation, and  lahich  results  from  the  specific  and  practicable  expe- 
rience involved  in  it.  God  is  infinite  spirit.  Infinity  and  spirit- 
uality are  inseparably  connected  in  His  being.  The  heathen 
idea  of  infinity  is  a  mere  negation  of  all  distinctions.  But  the 
human  mind  can  never  rest  in  mere  negativ^e  ideas  ;  it  will  have 


2l6  UNION    OF    INFINITY   AND    SPIRITUALITY. 

positive  conceptions  in  religion.  If  deprived  of  2.  positive  con- 
ception of  the  true  God,  it  will  \\^.MQ  positive  objects — an  inferior 
kind  of  deities.  It  can  never  free  itself  practically  from  the  idea 
of  the  divine  personality,  of  the  divine  spirituality,  of  life  and 
spirit  in  the  Godhead.  Hence  the  conception  of  secondary 
gods,  and  the  introduction  of  Polytheism  into  the  heathen 
world;  and  just  so  far  as  the  heathen  idea  of  the  divine  infinity 
has  infected  Christendom,  we  have  the  same  tendency  to  depart 
from  the  worship  of  God  to  the  worship  of  saints,  etc.,  from 
spiritual  worship  to  mechanical  ceremonies.  When  infinity  and 
spirituality  are  thus  separated  in  idea,  the  infinity  being  incapable 
of  any  distinctions  and  all  distinctions  being  incompatible  with 
infinity,  the  conception  of  the  living,  personal  God,  the  God  who 
is  spirit,  the  God  who  is  love,  the  God  of  revelation,  the  God 
incarnate,  the  God  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself, 
is  lost  from  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  Church.  And  though 
Christianity  practically  checked  this  tendency  by  the  saving 
power  of  the  gospel,  and  the  witness  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the 
hearts  of  believers,  it  has  still  reappeared  more  or  less  in  the 
speculative  apprehensions  of  theology  in  the  early  and  Middle 
Ages  of  the  Church.  Nor  have  modern  philosophy  and  theol- 
ogy escaped  the  contagion.  If  the  mind  have  not  the  realistic, 
positive  conception  of  the  infinite  God,  it  will  rest  upon  the  coft- 
crete,  real  being  of  the  finite  as  its  God.  As  the  Ancient  Phil- 
osophy, the  philosophy  of  the  heathen  mind,  the  philosphy 
underlying  Polytheism,  is  really  pantheistic  and  consequently 
unspiritual,  so  has  the  philosophy  of  modern  times  always 
tended  in  this  direction  except  when  fully  under  the  influence 
of  Biblical  ideas  and  ev^angelical  religion.  Alongside  of  the 
philosopher's  abstract  infinity  will  always  stand  the  manifold 
world  ;  and  when  all  concrete  being  is  shut  out  from  God,  it 
will  be  conferred  upon  the  luorld,  and  men  will  fall  down  and 
zvorship  the  spirit  of  the  ivorld  in  its  positive  being  and  its  concrete 
forms.  We  can  only  effectually  guard  against  this  error  by  the 
appropriation  and  application  of  the  Christian  idea  of  the  union 
of  infinity  and  spirituality  in  God,  as  it  is  made  practicable  by  the 
principle  of  the  Reformation.  All  attempts  to  unite  this  abstract 
being  of  God  and  the  concrete  existence  of  the  world  in  a  merely 
speculative  way,  without  a  basis  in  experience,  will  result  either 
in  making  God  a  mere  reflection  of  the  world,  or  the  world  the 


IMPORTANCE  OF  ENFORCING  THIS  IDEA.         21 7 

mere  shadow  of  God,  either  in  acosmism  or  pancosmism.  There 
is  but  one  step  between  this  abstract  divinity  and  the  substance  of 
Spinoza,  the  identity  of  Schelling,  or  the  idea  of  Hegel,  as  the 
medium  of  the  union  of  the  indeterminate  infinite  and  the  deter- 
minate forms  of  the  universe  of  being.  And  soon  not  only  the 
idea  of  spirituality,  but  even  that  of  this  mere  negative  infinity 
is  lost,  and  God  is  regarded  as  always  becoming,  but  never  really 
being,  in  Himself  the  living,  personal  object  of  love  and  ivorsJiip 
which  Christianity  declares  Him  to  be. 

§  3.  Tlie  Reason  and  Importance  of  .Urging  this  Idea  of  the 
Inseparable  Union  of  the  Divine  Spirituality  and  the  Divine 
Infinity. 

It  has  been  with  truth  observed  that  the  defective  view  of  this 
union  here  indicated,  has  affected  the  theology  of  the  older  dog- 
maticians  of  our  Church.  Their  idea,  for  example,  of  the  in- 
finity of  God.  reduces  His  attributes  to  the  mere  forms  in  which 
the  human  mind  grasps  the  absolutely  one  and  simple  being. 
Their  God  is  one  who  has  no  determinate  existence,  no  concrete 
attributes,  no  activities  as  Creator  and  Lord,  Redeemer  and 
Sanctifier.  He  is  not  Luther's  living  God  of  revelation,  of 
grace  and  consolation,  but  one  who  sustains  only  a  negative  re- 
lation to  the  world  enclosed  in  space  and  time,  to  the  living 
personal  beings  whose  life  is  historical,  to  the  moral  and  spirit- 
ual life  of  the  children  of  men. 

The  Christian  idea  of  the  union  of  the  divine  infinity  and 
spirituality  must,  therefore,  be  urged  against  this  mere  abstract 
idea  of  infinity  as  an  idea  which  is  in  contradiction  with  the 
true  Christian  consciousness,  with  the  experience  of  the  Chris- 
tian when  he  savingly  believes  in  Christ,  and  with  true  Scriptural 
theology.  He  who  conceives  of  God  as  infinite  in  a  sense 
which  denies  all  determinate  being  in  Him,  must  not  only  deny 
all  concrete  attributes  in  Him,  and  all  living  acts  of  Providence 
and  grace  on  His  part;  but  must  deny  His  spirituality;  for 
spirituality  is  a  determined  form  of  being,  a  determinate  state  of 
life.  The  idea  of  God  would  thus  become  so  attenuated  that 
it  would  be  difficult  to  distinguish  it  from  that  of  a  non-entity. 
The  determinate  infinity  is  higher  than  the  indeterminate;  it  is 
absolute  spirit.     God  is  self-controlled,  self-determined,  personal. 

Infinity  in  God,  therefore,  must  not  be  conceived  of  as  merely 


2l8  UNION    OF    INFINITY   AND    SPIRITUALITY. 

the  negation  of  all  that  is  finite,  not  merely  as  infinite  space  or 
infinite  essence,  not  merely  as  the  distinction  of  being  uncon- 
trolled by  others,  but  also  as  the  absolute  positing  of  Himself 
God  is  infinite  in  the  sense  that  He  is  ground  and  end  of  Him- 
self, that  He  is  self-existent,  independent,  absolute.  But  an 
entity,  which  has  not  only  its  ground  and  end  in  itself,  but  also 
has  in  itself  the  ground  and  end  of  all  being,  must  be  a  spirit — 
must  be  an  entity  whose  inner  nature  it  is  to  posit  itself  in 
thought  and  volition,  in  order  to  return  again  with  infinite  satis- 
faction into  itself  "  He  who  hath  planted  the  ear,  shall  He  not 
hear?  He  who  hath  formed  the  eye,  shall  He  not  see?"  In  the 
beautiful  and  impressive  language  of  Martensen:  "The  variously 
complicated  concatenation  of  rational  means  and  ends  which  co- 
operate in  nature  and  history,  in  the  realization  of  some  purpose, 
necessarily  implies  a  self-reflecting  principle  which  determines 
itself  and  all  other  things,  but  the  only  principle  which  has 
power  over  itself,  which  does  not  lose  itself  in  the  product  of  its 
activity,  which  returns  more  profoundly  into  and  on  itself  every 
time  that  it  goes  forth  from  itself, — is  will,  is  personality.  God 
is  a  PERSON,  that  is.  He  is  the  sdf-ccntralised,  Absolute,  the 
eternal,  fundamental  Being,  which  knows  itself,  as  the  I  am  in 
the  midst  of  His  infinite  glory  (Is.  xliv.  6),  which  is  conscious 
of  being  the  Lord  of  that  glory.  He  is  not  the  undefined  Qeicw 
but  eeof ;  He  is  seeing  omnipotence,  in  the  depths  of  whose 
wisdom  the  end  which  the  world  is  destined  to  serve,  and  of 
which  the  creature  only  becomes  conscious  in  time,  was  actually 
contained  in  the  form  of  a  counsel.  The  world  is  accordingly 
not  merely  a  system  of  eternal  thoughts  but  a  system  thoroughly 
worked  out  from  eternity ;  and  the  signs  of  the  presence  of 
reason  which  we  find  in  nature  and  history,  viewed  in  their  in- 
most significance,  must  be  pronounced  to  be  the  revelation  of 
the  will  of  the  God  of  Creation  and  Providence,  of  Him  who 
makes  known  in  the  world  His  eternal  power  and  Godhead 
(Rom.  i.  20)." 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEA    OF   THE   UNITY    OF    GOD    IN     THE    LIGHT     OF 
THE    PRINCIPLE   OF    THE    REFORMATION. 

§  I.  It  is  a  NiimcricaL  as  against  a  mere  Specific  Unity,  yet  a 
Vital  Unity ;  it  isyConcrete  and,  at  the  same  time,  excludes  every 
species  of  Polytheism  and  Dualism. 

This  arises  from  the  nature  of  the  Christjan  consciousness. 
Saving  faith  is  communion  with  one  God  through  one  Mediator 
between  God  and  man.  The  declaration  of  the  ancient  creed — 
that :  "As  we  are  compelled  by  Christian  truth  to  confess  each 
person  (of  the  Trinity)  to  be  distinctively  God  and  Lord,  we  are 
prohibited  by  the  Catholic  Religion  to  say  that  there  are  three 
Gods  or  three  Lords" — saving  faith  receives  as  the  proper 
response  of  the  Christian  mind  to  the  clearest  Scriptural  declar- 
ations. There  is  no  other  God  besides  Him  ;  He  is  the  only 
God.  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  Me  (Ex.  xx.  3) ; 
Hear,  O !  Israel,  the  Lord,  our  God  is  one  Lord  (Deut.  vi.  4). 
There  is  one  God,  the  Father,  of  whom  are  all  things  and  we  in 
Him  (i  Cor.  viii.  6).  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  the  King  of  Israel, 
and  His  Redeemer,  the  Lord  of  Hosts ;  I  am  the  first  and  I  am 
the  last,  and  besides  Me  there  is  no  God  (Is.  xliv.  6).  There 
is  only  one  God,  that  is,  the  absolutely  perfect  being  is  realized 
in  but  one  existence.  It  is  not  only  specific  but  numerical 
unity,  that  is,  the  idea  of  the  divine  unity  is  not  the  conception 
of  the  unity  of  a  species,  but  of  the  unity  which  is  predicated 
of  a  distinct  individual.  The  unity  of  God  is  not  to  be  taken 
in  the  sense  that  there  is  one  divine  species,  one  race  of  gods, 
as  there  is,  for  instance,  one  race  of  men  ;  but  in  the  sense,  that 
there  is  numerically  but  one  essence  or  substance  which  is  God, 
and  can  properly  be  called  God.  This  idea  of  the  divine  unity, 
involved  in  the  experience  of  faith — in  its  feeling  of  absolute 
dependence  upon  God  and,  consequently,  its  independence  of 
everything  else — is  in  accordance  with  the  demands  of  reason. 
//  is  an  intuition  inseparable  fro7n  faith — saving  faith,  is  necessarily 

(219) 


220  NUMERICAL   YET    VITAL   AND    CONCRETE    UNITY. 

evolved  out  of  it,  is  a  necessary  element  in  the  experience  of  faith — 
a  reason-conception.  This  unity  lies  necessarily  in  the  rational 
idea  of  the  Godhead,  as  the  only  absolutely,  unconditioned 
being — as  possessed  of  being  which  in  the  nature  of  the  case 
can  be  only  one ;  because  two  such  could  not  be  apprehended 
by  reason  without  a  separation,  and,  consequently,  a  limiting  of 
the  one  by  the  other.  This  unity  is  essential  and  necessary  in 
the  idea,  and  it  is  as  impossible  to  conceive  of  two  Godheads 
as  of  two  ultimate  rules  of  right.  But  this  inner  unity  of  God 
is  Jiot  an  abstract  Init  a  concrete  unity — the  iinity  of  the  one  living, 
personal,  self-conscious  God,  is  not  mere  abstract  oneness,  not  sim- 
ple, pure  essence,  not  subsistence  zuhich  is  absolutely  undefined.  This 
would  exclude  from  His  nature  all  concrete  life,  and  from  His 
unity  everything  possible  to  be  known.  But  faith  knows  God. 
The  true,  living  God  has  made  Himself  known,  has  revealed 
"  the  unity  of  His  nature  by  a  variety  of  determinations  of  His 
essence."  The  one  nature  has  revealed  itself  in  different  attri- 
butes, which  are  not  separate  from  one  another,  but  are  all  in 
each  and  each  in  all,  permeating  one  another  and  "  having  their 
common  centre  of  unity  in  the  same  divine  Ego,"  the  same  per- 
sonal life.  The  over-loo^cing  of  this  by  the  older  theologians, 
not  only  before,  but  since,  the  Reformation,  has  done  much  to 
strengthen  the  tendency  to  the  error  of  Unitarianism.  We  are 
not  required  by  reason  to  sacrifice  the  idea  of  life  to  that  of  one- 
ness. That  the  Christian  idea  of  this  concrete  fullness  in  the 
divine  unity  is  in  accordance  with  reason,  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  Polytheism  has  not  only  been  abandoned  and  Monothe- 
ism accepted  in  proportion  to  the  development  and  progress  of 
reason,  but  that  this  change  has  taken  place  in  proportion  also  as 
Christianity  has  been  extended  and  received.  While  the  Chris- 
tian faith  in  its  development  accepts  the  idea  of  the  trinity  of  the 
Godhead,  it  never  ceases  to  recognize  and  enforce  the  necessity 
of  the  idea  of  the  unity  of  the  divine  essence,  as  a  fundamental 
one ;  and  it  has  rejected  Arianism  with  its  secondary  gods — as 
it  made  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  be  in  its  idea — as  much 
in  the  interest  of  the  unity  as  in  that  of  the  trinity  of  the  God- 
head. And  the  fact  that  Christianity  has  succeeded  in  making 
Monotheism  the  popular  faith  wherever  it  has  prevailed,  is  not 
only  strong  proof  of  its  divnne  origin  ;  but  having  done  this  in 
connection  with  anthropopathic  and  anthropomorphic  represent- 


EXCLUDES  EVERY  FORM  OF  DUALISM.  221 

ations  of  God  as  a  personal,  living  being,  is  convincing  evidence, 
that,  not  the  idea  of  mere  abstract  oneness,  but  that  of  concrete, 
vital  7tnity,  is  the  true  idea  of  the  divine  unity.  This  is  the 
Christian  idea,  which,  at  the  same  time,  rejects  and  excludes  all 
Dualism. 

Dualism  is  not  only  inconsistent  with  the  divine  unity,  but 
with  the  entire  Christian  idea  of  God  and  the  world.  It  is  the 
conception  of  two  original  principles  or  sources  of  things,  a  good 
and  an  evil.  It  is  utterly  in  conflict  with  the  idea  of  the  divine 
infinity,  and  with  the  Christian's  faith  in  God  as  the  Redeemer 
of  the  world.  If  evil  has  not  had  a  beginning,  it  can  have  no 
end;  there  cannot  be  a  perfect  redemption — an  eternal  salva- 
tion. Besides,  it  takes  away  the  ethical  nature  and  the  guilt  of 
sin  by  its  transferring  it  from  the  visible  to  the  invisible  world, 
from  the  sphere  of  the  creature  to  that  of  the  creator  for  its 
origin.  If  moral  evil  be  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  it  cannot  be 
sin ;  there  can  be  no  guilt  in  it ;  the  creatures  involved  in  it,  can 
never  have  conviction  of  sin ;  and,  consequently,  can  have  no 
repentance  of  it ;  there  can,  indeed,  be  no  spiritual  redemption, 
no  ethical  process  of  salvation. 

§  2.   The  Relation  of  Faith  to  Reason  i)i  the  Proof  of  the  Divine 

Unity. 
The  proof  of  the  divine  unity  must  be  sought  in  the  agreement 
of  the  Christian  idea,  revealed  in  the  Bible  and  required  by  the 
principle  of  faith,  with  the  demands  of  the  reason  ;  and,  not  in 
any  mere  demonstrations  of  the  logical  understanding.  All 
efforts  of  the  latter  kind  have  always  failed.  Thus  some  have 
appealed  to  the  homogeneousness  of  the  plan  of  the  world  and 
the  harmony  of  the  entire  universe,  as  presupposing  the  unity 
of  the  Creator  and  Ruler  of  it.  But  remaining  within  the  range 
of  the  understanding,  Kant  properly  said  that  this  would  only 
prove  unity  in  the  counsel,  and  not  necessarily  in  the  Creator  or 
the  source  of  the  world.  Besides,  the  range  of  our  intellectual 
operations  is  too  narrow,  and  our  knowledge  of  the  universe  too 
limited,  to  entitle  us  to  the  claim,  that  we  can  understand  the 
plan  of  the  world,  and  that  we  can,  consequently,  prove  demon- 
strably its  homogeneousness  and  unity.  Aside  from  the  antag- 
onisms between  good  and  evil — which  are  so  numerous  and  so 
deep  that  they  have  perplexed  the  minds  of  all  thoughtful  men— 


223  NUMERICAL   YET    VITAL    AND    CONCRETE    UNITY. 

the  fact  itself  that  Dualism  has  existed  so  long,  and  prevailed 
so  widely  among  human  thinkers,  makes  it  highly  probable 
that  the  unity  of  God  cannot  be  proved  from  the  plan  of  the 
world. 

Others  have  appealed  to  the  act  of  the  creation  and  govern- 
ment of  the  world,  maintaining  that  it  is  impossible  that  several 
perfect  beings  could  have  united  in  the  creation  of  the  world,  or 
could  govern  it  without  being  diversely  active.  But — aside 
from  the  fact  that  in  the  mere  understanding-conception,  in  the 
conception  of  the  understanding  judging  merely  according  to 
the  sense,  there  might  be  several  most  perfect  beings — we  could 
not  be  certain  that  there  are  not  several  universes  or  worlds,  so 
that  each  god  might  have  alone  created  one  of  them,  and  gov- 
erned it  alone ;  and  that,  consequently,  the  Creator  and  Ruler 
of  this  world  might  be  one,  and  yet  there  might  be  no  unity  of 
the  divine  nature.  If  we  say  that  the  conception  of  an  infinitely 
perfect  being  makes  the  idea  of  several  most  perfect  beings  im- 
possible, we  speak  the  truth  ;  but  we  have  then  transcended  the 
empirical,  passed  the  limits  of  the  understanding,  judging  merely 
according  to  the  sense,  and  have  risen  to  the  reason-conception 
wJiicli  being  in  correlation  zvith  the  faith,  with  the  consciousness  of 
the  Christian,  confirms  its  truth.  But  this  is  not  the  result  of 
mere  reasoning.  And  it  only  shows  that  the  idea  produced  by 
the  Christian's  experience  in  religion  under  the  influence  of  the 
gospel  is  a  reason-conception — that  the  conception  of  the  unity 
of  God  is  never  made  without  first  having  faith  in  the  unity  of 
God  ;  that  it  is  an  intuition  involved  in  the  experience  of  saving 
faith ;  that  it  is  an  idea  possible  by  the  insight  of  the  reason 
under  divine  revelation ;  that  man  has  knowledge  as  an  element 
in  his  faith,  only  because  he  is  a  rational  being.  The  only 
reason  why  those  who  think  that  they  proceed  altogether  in  a 
process  of  reasoning,  in  reaching  this  result,  do  not  see  this,  is 
that,  while  they  profess  to  repudiate  the  dictate  of  faith  and  the 
insight  of  the  reason,  they  are  really  impelled  by  the  one  and 
guided  by  the  other,  and  mistake  in  accepting  as  the  result  of 
their  reasoning  what  they  had  been  convinced  of  before,  and  by 
means  other  than  any  such  process.  As  the  several  elements  of 
mind — intellect,  susceptibility  and  will,  and  in  the  intellect, 
sense,  understanding  and  reason — are  all  involved  more  or  less, 
in  every  process  of  thought,  so  they  are  inseparably  connected 


DEMANDED    ALIKE    BY    REASON    AND    RELIGION.  223 

with  religious  faith  and  knowledge,  and  none  of  them  should  be 
neglected  in  the  effort  to  apprehend  the  nature  of  God.  Taking 
all  the  sources  of  proof  together — the  harmony  of  the  laws  and 
forces  in  the  kingdom  of  nature,  the  unity  of  ethical  law, 
together  with  the  idea  of  absolute  perfection  which  in  the  nature 
of  the  case  can  only  be  one  and  indivisible — the  belief  in  the 
unity  of  God,  while  it  has  its  source  in  the  contact  of  the  divine 
revelation  with  the  human  susceptibility  for  God,  is  perfectly  in 
accordance  with  the  reason.     It  is  as  rational  as  it  is  religious. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  THUS  APPREHENDED  IN  ITS  OPPOSITION  TO 
ALL  SEPARATING  OF  GOD  AND  THE  WORLD,  AND  AS  THUS  EX- 
CLUDING   EVERY    FORM    OF    DEISM. 

§  I.   TJic  Intensity  of  the  Antagonism  of  the  Tlicistic  and  the 
Deistic  Ideas  in  the  Light  of  Saving  Faith. 

If  the  world,  though  originally  created  by  God,  is  now  sepa- 
rate from  Him,  it  is  independent — it  is  another  God.  But  the 
idea  springing  necessarily  from  saving  faith  requires  a  God  who 
is  not  only  Creator,  but  Reconciler ;  zvho  not  only  puts  forth  into 
existence  beings  distinct  from  Himself,  but  zvho  brings  them  into 
commimion  luitli  Himself ;  who  not  only  creates,  but  mediates  be- 
tween the  infinite  and  the  finite,  reconciles  betzveen  the  holy  God  and 
the  sinful  zvorld.  The  Deistic  idea  of  God  and  the  world  is 
utterly  inconsistent  with  the  saving  faith  of  the  Christian.  For 
while  it  accepts  a  personal  deity,  and  properly  distinguishes  be- 
tween Him  and  the  world,  and  while  it  recognizes  Him  as  the 
original  Creator  of  the  world,  it  yet  so  separates  Him  from  it 
as  to  lead  to  the  denial  of  all  special  providence  and  of  all  super- 
natural or  miraculous  revelation.  Thus  denying  the  continuous 
relation  of  God  to  the  world,  created  by  Him,  it  is  in  irrecon- 
cilable contradiction  with  the  Christian  consciousness  of  special 
salvation  through  faith  in  Christ,  as  the  historical,  the  crucified, 
but  risen  and  ever-living  Redeemer.  A  God,  who  did,  indeed, 
create  the  world,  but  has  no  living  connection  with  it ;  who  is, 
indeed,  its  lawgiver  and  judge,  but  does  not  enter  into  any  vital 
relations  with  the  kingdom  of  nature  or  the  world  of  men  ; 
who  does  not  reveal  Himself  to  man,  nor  enter  into  communion 
with  him,  is  not  the  Christian's  God.  A  theory  which  teaches 
a  freedom  without  dependence,  and  a  morality  evolved  merely 
from  a  self-dependent  reason — which  ignores  the  inmost  and 
deepest  wants  of  man,  the  deepest  and  strongest  impulses  of 
humanity,  and  the  noblest  and  highest  aspirations  of  the  soul ; 
which  overlooks  the   inner  connections  of  man  with   nature,  on 

(224) 


DANGEROUS    INFLUENCE    IN    THE    CHURCH    ITSELF.  225 

the  one  hand,  and  his  Hving  relation  to  God  on  the  other ;  thus 
apprehending  neither  the  nature  of  sin  nor  the  necessity  of  re- 
demption, neither  the  mysteries  of  reHgious  communion  nor 
the  significance  and  force  of  prayer — fails  to  meet  the  require- 
ments which  the  Christian  faith  must  make,  and  the  expectations 
which  it  must  entertain  respecting  the  speculative  apprehensions 
of  the  intellect  in  theology.  If  God  be  personal ;  if  He  be  the 
Creator  of  the  world,  we  would  expect  Him  to  exercise  a  prov- 
idence over  it.  If  He  has  made  man  a  personal,  accountable 
spirit — a  free,  responsible  agent — He  must  watch  over  him  and 
commune  with  him  ;  yea  we  should  expect  that  He  would  re- 
veal Himself  to  the  spirits  which  He  has  made  susceptible  of 
His  influence,  capable  of  believing  on  Him,  of  knowing  and  of 
loving  Him — to  have  a  kingdom  of  spirits  as  well  as  a  world  of 
nature,  to  make  a  moral  as  well  as  natural  revelation  of  His 
wisdom  and  power.  It  is  in  direct  antagonism  with  saving  faith, 
in  flat  contradiction  to  all  the  distinguishing  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  in  irreconcilable  conflict  with  the  entire  spirit  of  the 
gospel. 

%  2.  It  deserves  Notice  here  only  because  of  its  Deletcrio2is  Influ- 
ence in  the  Cliurch  itself. 
If  it  did  not,  as  we  shall  see  that  it  does,  perpetually  ijtsijtuate 
itself  into  the  Church,  it  would  be  superfluous  to  notice  it  in  this 
connection.  But  we  will  see  as  we  proceed  that  in  some  form 
or  other,  as  the  source  or  result  of  certain  doctrines  and  tenden- 
cies, there  is  always  danger  of  its  return  into  the  Church  and 
filling  it  with  speculative  and  practical  evils.  We  should,  there- 
fore, realize  its  deficiencies  and  errors.  It  is  absolutely  unable 
to  cast  a  single  ray  of  light  upon  the  dark  problems  of  human 
existence,  and  leaves  us  literally  "  without  God  and  without 
hope  in  the  world."  It  is  contrary  to  the  experience  of  all  who 
have  led  a  life  of  prayer,  and  is  in  opposition  to  the  witness  of 
the  Spirit  in  the  hearts  of  all  Christian  believers.  The  existence 
and  history,  the  observation  and  experience,  of  the  entire  Chris- 
tian Church  in  all  ages, — show  it  to  be  a  degenerate  Monotheism. 
It  has  been  well  said  that  it  is  the  Judaistic,  as  Mohammedan- 
ism is  the  infidel,  abuse  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Unity  of  God. 
It  must,  therefore,  be  excluded  from  all  place  in  a  true  theology, 
and  must  be  constantly  guarded  against  in  the  clear  light  which 
15 


226  ANTAGONISM    OF    THEISM    AND    DEISM. 

the  principle  of  the  Reformation  sheds  upon  the  Christian  idea 
of  God  and  the  world.  But  as  there  could  be  no  such  com- 
munion with  God  as  the  Christian  realizes,  if  there  were  the 
Deistic  separation  between  God  and  the  world ;  so  there  could 
not,  if  there  were  no  distinction  between  them.  There  must  be 
distinct  parties  or  there  can  be  no  communion,  and  this  leads  to 
the  notice  of  the  opposite  and,  at  the  present  time,  more  preva- 
lent and  dangerous  error. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEA    THUS    APPREHENDED,    IN    ITS  OPPOSITION  TO 
ALL    CONFOUNDING    OF    GOD    AND    THE    WORLD. 

§  I .  //  excludes  Every  Form  of  Monism . 

It  forbids  the  introduction  into  theology  of  every  species  of 
Hylozoism.  This  system  regards  the  ideal  and  the  real,  God  and 
the  world,  as  naturally  conditioning  one  another,  inasmuch  as  it 
considers  the  material  of  the  world  as  the  infinite  substance  of 
God,  penetrated  and  moved  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  as  its  inform- 
ing and  animating  power.  The  doctrine  is  that  matter  existed 
from  eternity  in  a  chaotic  state,  and  God  only  gave  it  life  and 
organized  form.  It  is  of  two  kinds — that  of  Plato,  to  wit,  that 
God  of  His  ozvn  zvill  united  Himself  to  matter;  and  that  of  the 
Stoics,  which  is  that  matter  and  mind,  though  distinct,  are  al- 
ways and  ivere  ahvays  necessarily  united.  God  is  the  soul  of  the 
world  ;  matter,  its  body.  They  are  both  forms  of  the  theory  of 
emanation,  namely,  that  all  things  existed  from  eternity  in  the 
divine  being,  and  that  there  is  a  perpetual  emanation  or  irradia- 
tion from  Him,  in  the  form  of  light  and  spirit  and  life.  This 
view  leads  to  the  denial  of  all  freedom  and  responsibility,  of  all 
the  ethical  elements  and  of  all  the  moral  ends  involved  in  the 
saving  faith  of  the  Christian,  and  consequently  must  be  rejected 
by  the  Christian  idea  of  God  and  the  world. 

And  so  it  excludes  all  materialism.  This  theory  denies  that 
the  world  has  a  spiritual  source  or  cause  distinct  from  itself  It 
regards  the  objects  of  sense — the  phenomenal — as  the  only  real 
being,  and  ascribes  all  the  forms  and  movements  of  the  world  to 
the  powers  of  nature.  This,  both  objectively  and  subjectively 
considered,  deserves  the  name  of  Atheism.  As  it  not  only  denies 
the  objective  reality  of  the  idea  of  God,  but  discards  the  idea 
itself  as  false  and  superstitious,  it  must,  when  systematically  de- 
veloped, end  in  practical  Atheism.  It  shuts  out  not  only  the 
Christian  faith  and  assurance  of  salv^ation,  but  all  possibility  of 
religious  faith,  as  far  as  it  can  control  the  thoughts  and  feelings 

and  actions  of  men. 

(227) 


228  SYSTEMS    CONFOUNDING    GOD    AND    THE   WORLD. 

So  Idealism  is  inconsistent  with  true  Christian  Theism.  This 
philosophy  regards  the  objective  as  vaHd  only  in  the  subjective 
representation,  resolves  the  conception  of  God  as  personal  being 
or  absolute  life  into  the  idea  of  a  subjective  moral  order  of  the 
world,  and,  consequently,  so  far  as  the  valid  being  of  God  is 
concerned,  it  is  inconsistent  with  every  element  of  the  Christian 
idea  of  God  and  the  world. 

All  these  forms  of  confounding  God  and  the  world  have  their 
culmination  in  the  ruling  error  of  the  day,  Pantheism — Panthe- 
ism which  has  been  prevalent  consciously  or  unconsciously  in 
all  erroneous  religious  systems  both  before  and  after  the  intro- 
duction of  Christianity ;  and  in  its  modern  development  and 
form,  is  perhaps,  the  most  fascinating  of  all  the  delusive  systems 
of  the  times. 

§  2.    The  Definition  and  the  Several  Forms  of  Pantheism. 

It  may  be  briefly  defined  as  the  theory  which  in  some  way  or 
other,  makes  the  universe  the  existence-form  of  God.  It 
neither  distinguishes  nor  separates  between  God  and  the  world, 
but  confounds  them  —  makes  them  identical.  It  asserts  the 
homogeneity  of  being  and  becoming,  of  God  and  the  world,  of 
Creator  and  creature.  It  has  two  forms.  It  either  ignores  the 
individual  being  of  the  world  and  resolves  it  into  God — which 
may  be  called  acosmism — or  it  ignores  the  personal  being  of 
God  and  resolves  it  into  nature  and  is  thus  pancosmism — and  in 
this  form  it  is,  in  its  last  and  legitimate  results,  pure  naturalism. 

The  former  is  that  of  Spinoza.  It  asserts  that  there  is  but  one 
substance,  but  that  this  has  two  infinite  attributes — thought  and 
extension.  All  finite,  limited,  determined  things,  not  only  arise 
from,  but  they  are  no  other  than  mere  modifications  of  this  one 
divine  substance.  This  pantheistic  system  which  has  all  God 
and  no  worshipers  is  as  inconsistent  with  the  religious  feeling 
and  the  Christian  idea,  as  the  atheistic  scheme  which  has  all 
worshipers  and  no  God,  or  at  least,  all  capable  of  faith  and  wor- 
ship, with  no  proper  object  to  be  believed  and  worshiped. 

The  second  form  is  that  which  results  from  Schelling's  doc- 
trine of  the  identity  of  subject  and  object — from  the  idea  of  the 
absolute  as  holding  in  itself  the  subjective  and  the  objective, 
natural  forces  and  spiritual  powers,  the  finite  and  the  infinite,  the 
real  and  the  ideal ;  in  short,  as  holding  in  absolute  indifference  all 


DELUSIVE    FASCINATION    OF    PANTHEISM.  229 

conceivable  contraries,  differences,  antagonisms.  This  absolute 
identity  is  what  the  system  calls  God.  Only  absolute  identity 
is  real ;  nothing  else  has  real  being.  All  that  which  we  call  the 
world  is  only  self-evolution  of  the  absolute  ;  its  antitheses,  its 
contraries,  its  antagonisms,  are  only  opposite  poles  of  the  abso- 
lute. All  differences  are  therefore,  only  in  degree  not  in  kind, 
only  quantitative,  not  qualitative  ;  and  nothing  exists  for  itself 
as  self-end.  Every  thing  is  only  an  evolution  of  the  absolute  in 
a  oarticular  form.  The  coming  forth  of  the  absolute  is  regarded 
not  only  as  a  revelation,  but  a  fall.  Even  souls,  like  the  phe- 
nomenal world,  are  not  real  existences,  but  have  arisen  from  the 
fall  of  the  absolute,  and  will  be  reunited  and  absorbed  in  the 
absolute.  The  universe  is,  therefore,  the  existence  and  life  of 
the  absolute.  To  this  conception  of  the  absolute  the  system 
claims  to  have  attained  by  an  intellectual  intuition.  But  such 
an  intuition  seems  from  the  very  nature  of  the  system  to  be  im- 
possible. How  the  intellect,  which  is  itself  but  one  of  the  tran- 
sient forms  or  manifestations  of  the  absolute,  could  have  such  an 
intuition  seemed  not  to  be  clear.  This  was  consequently  re- 
jected in  the  Absolute  Idealism  of  Hegel,  who  declared  "  that 
Schelling's  absolute  seemed  to  be  shot  out  of  a  pistol."  Drop- 
ping the  intellectual  intuition,  he  assumed  the  idea  itself  as  the 
absolute.  But  this  resulted  in  the  same  denial  of  the  person- 
ality of  God. 

§  3.   The  Delusive  Fascination  of  Pantheism. 

Pantheism  claims  the  merit  of  enforcing  the  immanence  of 
God  in  the  world,  of  bringing  Him  near  to  us  ;  and  it  has,  in- 
deed, as  against  Deism,  an  element  of  truth.  But  Christian 
Theism,  independently  of  this  system,  and  more  successfully, 
establishes  the  immanence  which  Deism  denies.  And  though 
Pantheism,  by  dwelling  upon  this  one  aspect  of  the  truth,  the 
immanence  of  the  Deity,  and  making  Him  prominent  as  the 
being  in  whom  "  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being,"  has,  at 
first,  much  fascination  for  the  fancy  and  attraction  for  the  heart ; 
yet,  as  it  denies  the  divine  transcendence,  it  soon  wearies  the 
former  and  disappoints  the  latter.  All  forms  are,  at  last,  beauti- 
ful and  sublime  only  as  they  are  organs  of  spirit.  But  the  forms 
of  nature  and  mind  are,  here,  to  the  imagination  no  longer  organs 
of  the  truly  spiritual ;  and  the  feelings  of  the  heart  find  no  stay. 


230  SYSTEMS    CONFOUNDING    GOD   AND    THE    WORLD. 

or  support,  or  comfort  in  an  impersonal  unconscious  absolute. 
Losing  God  in  the  world  the  system  slides  into  materialism  and 
becomes  Atheism;  losing  spirit  in  matter  it  becomes  sensualism, 
"  the  emancipation  of  the  flesh  ;"  or  losing  matter  in  spirit  it 
lands  in  a  fanatical  asceticism ;  or  it  may  connect  with  its  spec- 
ulative nihilism  all  the  recklessness  of  modern  socialistic,  revo- 
lutionary movements.  Or  by  its  ignoring  all  distinctions  of 
being  and  quality,  all  existence  is  made  an  empty  show,  ethical 
freedom  a  mere  appearance,  sin  a  natural  necessity,  virtue  and 
vice  mere  occasions  of  the  evolution  of  the  idea,  and  redemp- 
tion, a  dramatic  movement  of  the  Godhead,  in  which  it  becomes 
conscious  only  in  the  human  spirit,  and  exhausts  itself  in  an 
endless  evolution  of  immanent  thought,  ever  becoming,  but 
never  being,  a  real  existence. 

It  takes  from  life  all  true  and  lasting  sources  of  enthusiasm 
and  hope.  It  destroys  the  foundations  of  moral  freedom  and 
personal  immortality,  making  men  with  all  the  phenomena  of 
their  individual  existence,  nothing  but  the  endless  coming  and 
going  of  the  life-manifestations  of  the  absolute,  mere  transi- 
tion-points of  its  becoming,  mere  bubbles  on  the  ocean  of  uni- 
versal being,  mere  vibrations  of  the  unconscious  life  of  the 
universe,  mere  pulsations  of  the  ever  becoming  but  never  at- 
tained existence  of  the  All. 

§  4.  It  is  in  Conflict  ivitli  the  Noblest  Impulses  of  our  Nature. 

Against  such  a  system,  we  need  only  appeal  to  the  "  hope  that 
springs  eternal  in  the  human  breast ;"  the  strong  and  healthful 
stimulant  of  all  human  action  without  which  no  great  achieve- 
ment has  ever  adorned  the  page  of  human  history.  It  is  by  this 
innate  impulse  that  the  mind  of  man  is  incited  and  his  arm 
nerved  for  every  great  purpose.  To  limit  his  hope  to  this  life, 
is  to  bid  him  "  forsake  the  fountain  of  living  waters  and  hew  out 
for  himself  cisterns  that  can  hold  no  water."  Nothing  can  fully 
satisfy  him  without  the  hope  of  immortality.  There  is  here  no 
sky  without  its  clouds ;  no  flower  without  its  thorns.  "  Vanity 
of  vanities  all  is  vanity.  What  profit  hath  a  man  of  all  the  labor 
that  he  taketh  under  the  sun  ?  All  the  rivers  run  into  the  sea 
and  yet  the  sea  is  not  full ;  the  eye  is  not  satisfied  with  seeing, 
nor  the  ear  with  hearing."  "  All  the  glory  of  man  is  as  the 
grass  and  the  flower,  the  grass  withereth  and  the  flower  fadeth. 


OPPOSED    TO    ALL   ENTHUSIASM    AND    HOPE.  23 1 

but  the  word  of  the  Lord  abideth."  This  word  finds  a  fixed 
lodgment  in  the  heart  of  the  sincere  man ;  and  against  all  specu- 
lations of  philosophy  and  all  deductions  of  science,  he  will  ex- 
claim : 

"  Ah  !  star-eyed  science  hast  thou  wandered  there 
To  waft  us  home  the  message  of  despair  ? 
Then  bind  the  palm  thy  sage's  brow  to  suit. 
Of  blasted  leaf  and  death  distilling  fruit. 
Ah,  me !  the  sordid  wreath  that  murder  rears. 
Blood-nursed  and  watered  by  the  widow's  tears, 
Seems  not  so  foul,  so  tainted  or  so  dread 
As  waves  the  night-shade  round  the  skeptic's  head." 

What  motive  has  he  to  cultivate  his  own  mind,  if,  in  his  highest 
acquisitions  of  knowledge  and  virtue,  he  shall  have  only  made 
his  mortal  frame  a  feast  for  the  worm  of  the  grave,  a  little  more 
refined  than  it  would  otherwise  have  been  ?  Or  to  labor  for  the 
improvement  of  society,  the  order  and  morality  of  the  commu- 
nity, if  in  his  highest  success  he  shall  have  only  been  instru- 
mental in  teaching  his  fellow  men  to  perform  their  funeral  march 
to  the  grave,  in  a  manner  a  little  more  orderly  than  they  would 
otherwise  have  done.  No  !  the  earnest  man  will  feel  that  death 
does  not  end  all,  that  he  has  an  immortal  soul — a  personal  im- 
mortality. 

"  And  is  it  in  the  flight  of  three  score  years, 
To  push  eternity  from  human  thought, 
And  smother  souls  immortal  in  the  dust  ? 
A  soul  immortal  spending  all  her  fires. 
Wasting  her  strength  in  strenuous  idleness, 
Thrown  into  tumult  raptured  or  alarmed, 
At  aught  this  scene  can  threaten  or  indulge. 
Resembles  ocean  into  tempest  tossed 
To  waft  a  feather  or  to  drown  a  fly." 

§  5 .  //  is  Inconsistent  with  True  Rational  Thought  and 
Religious  Feeling. 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  its  development,  and  especially  in  its 
representatives  in  Germany,  it  seemed  to  favor  Christianity,  and 
to  be  in  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  religion.  But  in  the  course 
of  its  development  the  antagonism  between  its  spirit  and  the 
faith  of  the  Christian,  its  idea  of  God  and  the  world,  and  the 
Christian  idea,  has  become  more  and  more  manifest  and  irrecon- 
cilable.    Destroying  as  it  does  the  idea  of  the  transcendence  of 


232  SYSTEMS    CONFOUNDING    GOD    AND    THE   WORLD. 

God,  it  must  be  rejected  by  the  religious  feeling  of  the  need  of 
personal  communion  with  God.  Only  the  personal  can  satisfy 
the  wants  of  the  personal ;  only  the  personal  can  heal  the  per- 
sonal. The  impulses  to  prayer  are  not  satisfied  by  this  system, 
and  the  emotions  of  love  cannot  go  out  toward  an  unconscious 
mind  or  a  blind  force ;  the  heart  cannot  rest  upon  the  bosom  of 
impersonality  ;  it  cannot  be  satisfied  with  a  being  who  has  no 
intelligence,  or,  at  least,  no  consciousness  of  thought  or  freedom 
of  will,  other  than  its  own — no  conscious  thought,  or  feeling,  or 
counsel,  or  purpose  distinct  from  the  phenomena  of  this  kind 
existing  in  its  own  experience.  It  wants  a  higher  thought,  a 
better  feeling,  a  holier  counsel  than  its  own.  Reason  resting 
on  faith  and  in  agreement  with  its  interpretation  of  life  and  ex- 
perience, must  reject  the  idea  that  the  Being  who  brought  into 
existence  personal  life,  should  be  Himself  impersonal ;  that  the 
conscious  should  have  come  from  the  unconscious;  that  the 
order  and  beauty,  the  adaptation  and  grandeur  of  the  visible 
world,  should  have  their  source  in  unconscious  mind  or  blind 
force.  When  she  is  called  upon  to  look  upon  God  as  engaged 
for  countless  ages  in  fabricating  worlds,  and  with  steady  step 
or  stormy  movement,  with  majestic  stride  or  playful  motion, 
wielding  systems  of  stars  and  planets;  framing  the  earth  and 
decking  it  with  all  the  manifold  forms  of  beauty  and  sublimity ; 
garnishing  the  heavens  with  glories  of  His  handiwork — when 
she  is  called  upon  to  see  Him  cause  the  grass  to  grow  and  the 
flowers  to  bloom,  clothing  the  lilies  of  the  field  in  garments 
more  beautiful  than  the  royal  apparel  in  which  the  wisest  of 
kings  was  ever  arrayed,  more  graceful  and  elegant  than  the 
genius  of  man  could  ever  invent  or  his  skill  fabricate  ;  to  see 
Him  form  the  brute  and  create  rational  man — and  then  is  asked 
to  believe  that  it  is  only  in  the  consciousness  of  man,  the  work 
of  His  creative  hand,  that  He  is  becoming  conscious,  gradually 
coming  to  know  hew  He  made  all  these  things — when  she  is 
called  upon  to  do  this,  she  must  protest,  as  well  in  the  right  of 
her  own  nature  as  in  the  name  of  the  religious  spirit  in  man, 
against  any  such  demands.  Existence  is,  indeed,  a  mystery, 
but  the  explanation  which  derives  the  intelligent  from  the  non- 
mtelligent,  the  conscious  from  the  unconscious  ;  which  accepts 
:he  genesis  of  the  world  of  mind  and  thought  and  life  from  in- 
organic matter ;  which  receives  the  results  of  human  history  as 


CULMINATION    IN    ABSOLUTE    PESSIMISM.  233 

the  operations  of  blind  chance  or  a  mere  law  of  natural  selection, 
prefers  a  horrible  absurdity  which  must  be  loathed,  to  a  mystery 
so  profound  that  it  is  adorable,  and  so  full  of  love  that  it  is  at- 
tractive to  both  heart  and  mind.  While  it  fails  to  assist  us  in 
explaining  the  riddle  of  existence  and  life,  it  asks  us  to  receive 
what  common  sense  and  sound  reason  have  never  been  able  to 
act  upon  with  either  intellectual  certainty  or  moral  satisfaction. 
Beginning  with  the  idea  of  the  universe  as  a  fall  from  the  abso- 
lute, it  has  properly  ended,  in  its  last  and  greatest  representa- 
tives, Schopenhauer  and  Von  Hartmann,  in  a  pessimism  which 
regards  existence  itself  as  misery.  It  pretends  to  give  no  satis- 
faction to  the  intellect,  for  it  regards  the  existence  of  the  world 
as  a  blunder,  a  mishap  of  being  ;  it  offers  no  comfort  to  the 
heart  for  it  tells  us  that  consciousness  itself  is  simply  a  state  of 
suffering  and  wretchedness.  It  has  ceased  to  console  men  for 
the  loss  of  the  hope  of  a  personal  immortality,  by  promising  a 
good  time  to  come  on  earth ;  for  it  now  teaches  us  that,  as  in- 
crease of  intelligence  is  an  increase  of  consciousness,  and  conse- 
quently of  misery,  all  progress  in  culture  is  an  intensification 
and  an  accumulation  of  the  misery  of  human  existence.  The 
heart  must  be  greatly  blinded  which  does  not  prefer  the  "  godli- 
ness which  is  profitable  unto  all  things,  having  the  promise  of 
the  life  that  now  is  as  well  as  of  that  which  is  to  come,"  to  the 
ungodliness — the  denial  of  a  personal  God — which  not  only  takes 
away  the  hope  of  a  personal  immortality,  of  another  and  a  bet- 
ter life,  but  refuses  even  to  allow  the  expectation  of  any  satis- 
faction in  the  present  life.  But  especially  must  the  uncorrupted 
conscience  repudiate  an  idea  which  is  in  irreconcilable  conflict 
with  its  very  being  and  nature — an  idea  which  destroys  the 
reality  of  all  moral  distinctions  and  all  true  grounds  of  respon- 
sibility and  retribution,  making  the  sense  of  guilt,  self-decep- 
tion ;  and  sin,  not  the  product  of  the  voluntary  act  of  the 
creature  but  a  necessary  element,  a  necessary  part  of  that  uni- 
verse of  being  which  is  identical  with  God  Himself  It  removes 
all  the  foundations  of  ethics  and  yet  offers  no  solution  of  the 
evil  existing  in  the  world,  and  takes  away  all  hope  of  deliv- 
erance from  it  except  it  be  found  in  the  annihilation  of  our 
personal  conscious  existence.  Strikingly  impressive  are  the  re- 
marks of  Martensen  on  this  point. 

"  In   reality,  therefore,  there   can  be  only  two  religious  and 


234  SYSTEMS    CONFOUNDING    GOD    AND    THE   WORLD. 

two  scientific  systems — the  Pantheistic  and  the  Theistic — the 
former  having  for  its  highest  the  derived  absolute,  the  universe ; 
the  latter  based  on  the  original  absolute,  that  is,  on  God  as  God. 
The  antagonism  between  pantheism  and  theism,  is  not  merely 
an  antagonism  of  science,  of  schools,  but  is,  in  its  deepest  roots, 
a  religious  antagonism  ;  it  cannot,  therefore,  be  fought  out  alone 
in  the  domain  of  science.  Our  deciding  for  pantheism  or  for 
theism,  depends  not  merely  on  thought,  but  also  on  the  entire 
tendency  of  our  inner  life  ;  depends  not  merely  on  the  reason, 
but  also  on  the  conscience,  or,  as  Scripture  terms  it,  on 
the  hidden  man  of  the  heart.  Where  the  mind  is  unduly  ab- 
sorbed in  physical  or  metaphysical  pursuits,  the  tendency 
of  the  inner  life  is  pantheistic ;  where,  on  the  contrary,  the 
etJiical  is  recognized  as  the  fundamental  task  of  existence,  the 
tendency  of  the  inner  life  is  theistic.  We  are  aware,  indeed, 
that  among  pantheistic  thinkers  there  have  been  men  who  must 
be  counted  not  only  amongst  the  greatest  intelligences,  but  also 
amongst  the  noblest  souls,  of  the  human  race  ;  but  we  find  pre- 
cisely in  these  profoundest  and  noblest  pantheists,  a  some- 
thing reaching  out  beyond  their  pantheism  ;  we  think  we  can 
discern  in  them  a  yearning  and  a  striving  of  which  they  them- 
selves are  unconscious,  after  an  ethical,  personal  God,  such  as 
their  system  denies.  In  their  moments  of  greatest  enthusiasm 
they  have  experienced  a  need  of  holding  intercourse  with  the 
highest  idea,  as  though  it  were  a  personal  being.  Even  in  Spi- 
noza a  certain  bent  toward  personality  is  discernible;  for  exam- 
ple, when  he  speaks  of  intellectual  love  to  God,  and  styles  it  a 
part  of  that  infinite  love  with  which  God  loves  Himself  Schell- 
ing,  Fichte,  and  Hegel  too,  were  stirred  by  a  religious,  an  ethical 
mysticism,  which  contained  the  germ  of  a  personal  relation  to 
a  personal  God." 

§  6.  Its  Vain  Attempt  to  Reco7icile  its  View  with  the  Bible. 
Such  .  men  as  these,  at  their  stage  of  the  development  of 
the  pantheistic  system,  kept  themselves  in  sympathy  with  the 
Church.  They  so  explained  her  dogmas  in  the  light  of  the  idea, 
that  they  seemed  to  accept  them ;  to  afford  profound  explana- 
tions of  them,  and  to  defend  them  as  lower  forms  of  the  high- 
est truths.  They  earnestly  though  vainly  strove  to  bring  the 
system  into  friendly  relations  with  the  Sacred  Scriptures.     But 


UTTER   ANTAGONISM    WITH    THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEA.  235 

not  only  were  they  really  in  conflict  with  the  Christian  idea  of 
God  and  the  world,  as  it  is  developed  from  the  experience  of 
saving  faith  in  Christ,  but  with  the  language  as  well  as  the  Spirit 
of  the  Bible.  The  very  first  verse  of  that  Holy  Book  stands  in 
irreconcilable  contradiction  with  this  philosophy  ;  and  the  few 
passages  which  seemed  to  favor  it,  were  easily  explained  as  in 
perfect  harmony  with  theism,  as  expressing  only  the  immanence 
as  well  as  the  transcendence  of  God ;  the  truth  that  God's  life 
permeates  and  guides  all,  that  He  is  the  immanent  cause  and  up- 
holder of  the  world  ;  and,  consequently,  as  expressing  only  the 
presence  of  the  wisdom,  power  and  goodness  of  God,  and  not 
the  divine  essence  as  if  it  were  absorbed  in,  or  did  not  transcend 
the  world. 

§  7.  Its  Declared  Antagonism  zvith  the  Christian  Idea  of  God  and 

the  World. 

This  antagonism  between  the  Christian  idea  and  pantheism  is 
now  fully  recognised  by  the  supporters  of  the  system.  The  scien- 
tific representatives  of  it  have  passed  beyond  their  predecessors 
in  the  development  of  its  results  ;  and  its  unscientific  adherents 
are  applying  the  consequences  to  practice  in  the  movements  of 
communism  in  Europe  and  in  this  country.  Schopenhauer, 
seeing  that  Hegel's  mere  logic  of  thought  could  give  no  account 
of  the  origin  of  the  process — the  world-process — the  movement 
in  thought  and  being,  declared  zuill,  blind  will,  to  be  the  absolute, 
and  thought  to  be  only  a  result.  And  now  Von  Hartmann,  the 
latest  and  the  strongest  of  the  present  supporters  of  the  system, 
discovering  that  the  conception  of  mere  blind  will,  as  the  abso- 
lute, is  inconsistent  with  the  manifestations  of  intelligence — with 
the  evidence  of  the  adaptation  of  means  to  ends  in  the  world- 
process — conceives  of  the  absolute  as  mind,  intelligent  mind, 
indeed,  but  "  unconscions  mind','  with  will  and  intellect  as  its 
modes  or  functions.  And  he  makes  the  attempt  to  give  a 
philosophy  of  "the  unconscious,"  as  the  philosophy  of  the  ab- 
solute, as  an  exposition  of  the  universe  of  being ;  making  un- 
conscious, instinctive  intelligence,  the  primitive  and  highest 
intelligence — even  omniscience  itself 


236  SYSTEMS    CONFOUNDING    GOD    AND    THE    WORLD. 

§  8.  Encouraging  Results,  for  Christianity ,  of  "  The  Philosophy  of 
the  Unconscious! ' 

The  cheering  aspect  of  "  The  Philosophy  of  the  Uncon- 
scious" is,  that  it  completely  overtlirotvs  the  theoiies  of  the 
materialistic  positivists ;  showing  as  it  does,  the  absurdity  of  all 
attempts  to  explain  away  the  marks  of  intelligence  and  design 
which  are  manifest  in  the  world.  Never  before,  perhaps,  have 
we  had  a  more  striking  array  of  facts  and  arguments  proving 
intelligence  and  design  in  the  adaptations  of  nature ;  never  a 
more  convincing  demonstration  of  the  absurdity  of  the  denial 
of  final  causes.  It  shows  the  inseparable  connection  that  ex- 
ists between  will  and  intellect,  between  force  and  reason  ;  and, 
consequently,  between  efficient  and  final  causes.  It  shows  that 
efficient  causes  cannot  be  conceived  as  operating  without  final 
causes ;  and  that  all  created  or  individual  being  must  serve 
rational  ends.  And  as  it  makes  instinct  the  prius  in  mind,  and 
instinctive  intelligence  the  highest  state  of  mind,  it  comes  into 
direct  conflict  with  the  Darwinian  theory  which  makes  instinct 
merely  inherited  experience.  This  work  will,  thus,  contribute 
to  check  one  of  the  most  popular  and  prevalent  forms  of  skep- 
ticism. These  aspects  of  the  system  have  been  appropriated  by 
theologians,  not  only  because  they  are  instances  of  one  species 
of  scientific  skepticism  answering  another — of  idealism  refuting 
the  positions  of  materialism  and  naturalism — but  because  they 
are  exhibited  with  great  clearness  and  power. 

So  the  pessimism  of  these  last  representatives  tends  to  show 
the  vanity  and  misery  of  the  world  so  much,  as  the  Bible  has 
always  represented  them  to  be,  that  their  systems  will  lead  men 
to  ask  whether  it  is  not  most  likely,  that  the  Bible  will  be  found,  at 
last,  to  be  as  tnie  in  its  representations  of  the  salvation  of  whicli  it 
speaks,  as  it  has  been  found  by  this  philosophy  to  be  in  its  descrip- 
tions of  the  miseries  of  majt.  The  system  has  ceased  to  speak 
of  the  prospects  of  man  on  earth  as  full  of  hope ;  it  no  longer 
thinks  that  if  man  would  only  cease  to  think  of  heaven  he  could 
make  a  paradise  of  earth  ;  that  if  he  would  only  cease  to  expect 
another  life,  he  would  make  a  very  happy  life  of  the  present. 
This  used  to  be  the  language  of  the  unbelieving  secular  mind 
in  opposition  to  the  views  of  life,  death  and  eternity  entertained 
by  the  Christian  believer.     But   its   language   is  changed  from 


"  THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF   THE    UNCONSCIOUS,     A    FAILURE.       237 

hope  to  despair,  from  optimism  to  pessimism.  And  since  the 
philosophical  spirit  has  ceased  to  parade  optimistic  views  against 
the  revealed  idea  of  the  vanity  of  this  world,  and  since  it  is  ter- 
minating, as  in  the  case  of  Schopenhauer  and  Von  Hartmann, 
in  the  most  profound  and  hopeless  pessimism,  we  cannot  but 
feel  that  the  result  will  be  a  greater  sense  of  the  need  of  the 
Christian  salvation — a  feeling  so  deep  that  multitudes  will  find 
occasion  from  it,  to  be  led  by  the  practical  principles  of  human 
nature  to  lay  hold  upon  the  great  Saviour,  with  the  cry  of  the 
old  faith  of  the  Church :  "  I  cannot  let  Thee  go  until  Thou  bless 
me." 

§  9.  TJie  Philosophy  has  failed,  and  only  served  to  bring  the  Issue 
between  the  Christian  Idea  and  Pajitheisni  into  the  clearest  light, 
as  simply  that  betiveen  Christianity  and  Heathenism. 

And  as  the  system  has  brought  the  issue  between  theism  and 
pantheism,  between  the  Christian  idea  and  the  heathen  idea  of 
God  and  the  world,  simply  to  the  question  of  conscionsness  or 
unconsciousness  in  God,  it  will,  we  think,  soon  be  seen  by  specu- 
lative thinkers,  as  it  has  long  ago  and  always  been  experienced 
practically,  to  be  a  qiiestion  more  of  zuill  than  of  intellect,  more  of 
spiritual  disposition  than  of  intellectual  ability.  The  earnest  heart 
as  well  as  the  clear  head  will  not  be  ready  to  accept  Von  Hart- 
mann's  instinctively  rational  activity  as  the  first  and  the  primi- 
tive source  of  things.  It  cannot  but  feel  that  with  all  his  ability 
his  attempt  at  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  existence  is  a  fail- 
ure. When  it  is  invited  to  look  at  this  unconscious  thought 
which  is  in  operation  in  the  world,  at  this  instinctively  rational 
activity  in  man  and  brute,  and  is  then  asked  to  accept  this  as 
the  first,  the  primal  source  of  the  universe  of  conscious  beings, 
it  must  refuse  to  comply.  It  will  ask  for  a  solution  of  the 
problem  itself  which  this  unconscious,  instinctive  action  pre- 
sents ;  it  will  ask  for  an  explanation  of  the  possibility  of  this 
instinctively  rational  activity  of  the  unconscious,  whether  in  the 
organic  or  the  inorganic  world,  in  plant  or  animal,  in  the  lower 
or  higher  forms  of  life  and  mind.  It  cannot  stop  until  it  cognize 
th.Q  primitive  absolute  as  the  conscious  source  of  this  instinctively 
rational  activity,  and  "the  unconscious  mind"  in  which  it  is  found 
as  only  the  derived  and  not  the  original  absolute.  When  "  The 
Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious"   expounds   all  the  forces  and 


238  SYSTEMS    CONFOUNDING    GOD    AND    THE    WORLD. 

movements  of  nature,  all  the  realities  and  manifestations  of  con- 
sciousness by  the  instinctive  operation  of  "  unconscious  mind," — 
it  offers  a  solution,  which  itself  as  much  needs  explaining,  as  the 
problem  which  it  attempts  to  solve.  It  needs  an  exposition  as 
much  as  the  phenomena  which  it  is  to  expound — needs  an  ex- 
planation, which  cannot  be  given  by  him  who  denies  a  personal, 
conscious  Creator  as  the  first  and  the  last,  the  ground  and  end, 
of  this  unconscious  power  and  movement.  While  we  fully  rec- 
ognize this  unconscious  activity  in  finite  existences,  in  spirit  as 
well  as  in  nature,  in  mind  as  well  as  in  matter,  and  while  we 
stand  in  admiration  before  the  immense  induction  of  facts  prov- 
ing this  kind  of  activity  in  all  the  world — not  only  in  the  forces 
of  inorganic  nature,  but  in  organic  life ;  not  only  in  plant  and 
animal,  but  also  in  man  and  his  history ;  and  follow  with  intense 
interest  the  tracings  of  this  unconscious  activity  in  all  the  forms 
of  human  knowledge  and  art,  yea,  even  in  the  greatest  produc- 
tions of  genius, — while  we  acknowledge  the  fact,  we  cannot  ac- 
cept the  explanation  which  is  given,  the  conclusion  which  is 
drawn.  The  philosophy  which  makes  the  absolute,  like  Cud- 
worth's  plastic  nature,  operate  unconsciously  only,  and  yet  with 
rational  ends,  and  for  the  accomplishment  of  designs  of  unerring 
wisdom — and  this  is  exactly  what  this  philosophy  does — must 
fail  to  give  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  this  instinctively  rational 
operation;  unless,  like  Cudworth,  it  accept  the  existence,  back 
of  "  tlie  nncojiscions"  of  a  zvill  that  is  both  rational  and  conscious, 
of  a  personal  as  well  as  a  wise  Creator,  of  an  existence  which 
not  only  acts  from  self,  but  which  knows  itself  The  being  who 
can  be  the  source  of  such  instinctively  rational  activity,  must  be 
one  who  is  self-conscious,  self-possessed,  self-sufficient,  self-sat- 
isfied— must  be  a  person,  an  absolute  person,  an  infinite  spirit. 
To  say  that  the  source  of  all  the  conscious  activity  of  the  uni- 
verse, "though  unconscious  is  yet  omniscient,"  is  an  absurdity. 
An  omniscience  which  does  not  know  itself,  is  inconceivable. 
The  unconscious  rational  activity  which  is  so  abundantly  found 
in  the  world  should  be  regarded  not  as  the  original,  underived 
absolute,  but  as  the  derived  absolute — call  it  "plastic  nature"  or 
"  unconscious  mind  "  if  you  please — a  derived  absolute — a  plas- 
tic nature  created  by  the  underived,  intelligent,  conscious  abso- 
lute. The  system  which  not  only  recognizes  marks  of  intelli- 
gence in  the  world,  but  proves  that  we  must  conclude  from  them 


THE    HIGHEST    INTELLIGENCE    CONSCIOUS.  239 

that  it  has  an  intelligent  source,  must  also  conclude  that  that 
intelligent  source  is  conscious  being.  For  it  does  not  solv^e  the 
question  concerning  the  source  of  such  instinctive,  yet  rational 
activity,  to  say  that  the  source  though  rational,  is  unconscious ; 
though  intelligent,  is  not  aware  of  its  own  being  and  action. 
For  the  end  which  is  realized  in  the  world  by  this  instinctively 
rational  activity,  must  have  existed  in  that  source,  as  an  intelli- 
gent thought,  a  conscious  plan,  a  wise  counsel.  According  to 
this  philosophy  we  are  to  regard  omniscience  as  unconscious, 
because  in  it  there  is  no  distinction  of  beginning  and  end.  It 
says  that  in  the  absolute,  will  and  intellect  are  commensurate, 
power  and  intelligence  so  completely  correspond,  so  fully  coin- 
cide, are  so  identical,  that  the  absolute  though  omniscient  is  un- 
conscious; that  the  will  only  does  what  the  intellect  knows,  and 
the  intellect  only  knows  what  the  will  does;  that  power  only 
executes  what  intelligence  indicates,  and  intelligence  only  cog- 
nizes what  power  performs ;  and  that  power  and  reason,  so 
completely  balancing  each  other,  being  in  such  absolute  equilib- 
rium, there  can  be  no  consciousness  —  no  consciousness  but 
infinite  power  and  infinite  reason,  absolutely  perfect  knowledge. 
But  consciousness  is  here  ;  consciousness  is  in  the  universe  of 
being,  how  did  it  begin  ?  This  philosophy  can  only  answer  by 
saying,  it  was  a  fall  of  the  absolute,  a  mishap  of  being.  But 
how  could  that  equilibrium  ever  be  disturbed,  and  consciousness 
begin  ?  The  absolute  is  not  conditioned  or  affected  by  any 
thing  other  than  itself, — and,  according  to  this  system,  its  very 
nature  in  itself,  as  unconscious,  is  to  be  in  this  equilibrium. 
"  The  philosophy  of  the  unconscious,"  therefore,  while  it  has 
clearly  shown  that  the  marks  of  design  in  the  world  overthrow 
all  the  attempts  to  expound  the  universe  without  the  admission 
of  an  intelligent  author,  has  certainly  failed  to  show  that  that 
intelligent  source  is  "  unconscious."  When  we  once  recognize 
rational  ends  in  the  mind  which  is  the  source  of  a  world  full  of 
marks  of  design,  it  seems  absurd  to  regard  it  as  merely  "the  un- 
conscious soul "  of  the  world,  or  as  the  self-developmg  universe 
itself  It  is  only  in  the  idea  of  a  person  who  is  the  free  and 
independent,  the  conscious,  as  well  as  the  intelligent  source  of 
all,  that  we  have  a  solution  of  the  problem. 

But  be  this  as  it  may,  the  scientific  representatives  of  Panthe- 
ism now  admit  that  tlicir  idea  of  God  and  the  zvorld  is  the  old 


240  SYSTEMS    CONFOUNDING    GOD    AND    THE    WORLD. 

heathen  idea  developed  into  scientijic  form,  and  that  it  is  in  direct 
antagonism  with  the  Bible  and  Christianity.     And  it  has  been 
so  accepted  with  equal  readiness  by  the  masses  in  many  parts 
of  Europe,  and  by  not  a  few  in  this  country.     And  when  we  re- 
member, that  there   is,  in   depraved   human   nature,  a  constant 
source  of  motive  to  attempt  the  exposition  of  the  universe  with- 
out the  admission  of  a  living  God,  a  personal  creator  and  judge 
of  men  ;  that  the  Bible  ascribes  the  pantheism  of  the  heathen, 
to  the  circumstance  that  "  they  did  not  worship  God  as  God,  but 
served  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator,  who  is  God  blessed 
forever;"  that  "  when  they  knew  God  they  glorified  Him  not  as 
God,  neither  were  thankful,  but  became  vain  in  their  imagina- 
tions, and  their  foolish  hearts  were  darkened  ;"  that  "  professing 
to  be' wise  they  became  fools,"— when  we  remember  this,  we  will 
realize    the    terrible    nature    of   this,   the   modern  form   of  the 
heathen  idea,  of  the  present  and  prevalent  infidelity.     It  has,  at 
length,  come    into    clear   and    conscious    antagonism  with    the 
ChHstian  idea;   and  it  is  the  struggle  of  Christianity  with  this 
most  decided  enemy,  which  constitutes  the  great  conflict  of  the 
day.     The  issues  will  be  of  unspeakable  importance  to  the  cause 
of  God  and  humanity.     It  is  highly  probable  that  this  will^  be 
the  last  great  battle  of  Christianity.     In  this  view  of  the  subject 
let  us   take  a  more  extended  and  particular  view  of  this  great 
conflict. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE  NATURE  OF  THE  ALL-ABSORBING  CONFLICT  BETWEEN  THE 
CHRISTIAN  IDEA  AND  THE  HEATHEN  WORLD-VIEW,  AS  THEY 
HAVE  COME  TO  BE  DEVELOPED  AND  APPREHENDED  AT  THE 
PRESENT  DAY. 

§  I.   Tlie  Two  Antagonistic  Religions  and  the  Only  Possible 
Religions. 

It  is  well  said  that  "there  can  be  but  two  religions,  Pantheism 
and  Theism."  Pantheism  has,  in  its  full  development,  absorbed 
all  the  elements  of  power  in  the  various  systems  which  confound 
God  and  the  world,  such  as  idealism  and  materialism  ;  and  The- 
ism, all  the  grains  of  truth  contained  in  those  which  separate 
between  God  and  the  world,  such  as  Deism  in  all  its  forms 
— Judaism,  Mohammedanism,  Rationalism.  There  can,  conse- 
quently, be  only  two  world-views  ;  the  one,  the  heathen,  the 
other,  the  Christian  idea  of  God  and  the  world  ;  the  one  hold- 
ing the  absolute  in  the  sense  simply  of  infinite  space  and  of  mere 
unconditioned  cause  ;  the  other,  as  "  the  being  who  self-con- 
trolled, stands  absolved  from  all  other  controlling;"  the  one 
denying  the  personality  of  God  and  the  possibility  of  revelation  ; 
the  other,  not  only  affirming  the  divine  personality  and  the  pos- 
sibility of  miraculous  communications  but  expecting  special 
divine  intercourse  and  communion  of  the  Creator  with  his  crea- 
tures, of  God  with  man.  The  only  consistent  opponent  of 
Christianity  is  Naturalistic  Pantheism ;  and  the  only  genuine 
and  real  supporter  of  it,  is  true  Theism. 

The  infidelity  of  the  past  age  was  Deism,  which  held  many 
truths  in  common  with  Christianity  ;  alien  as  it  was  in  its  spirit 
and  nature,  it  had  in  common  with  Christianity  the  belief  in  a 
living  personal  Deity,  the  moral  freedom  of  men,  moral  govern- 
ment and  final  retribution — God,  the  soul,  human  responsibility 
and  personal  immortality.  The  infidelity  of  the  present  day  is 
Pantheism.  It  has  absorbed  all  the  elements  of  skepticism  in 
regard  to  the  Christian  faith.  It  has  nothing  in  common  with 
i6  ( 241 ) 


242  THE  GREAT  CONFLICT  OF  THE  DAY. 

Christianity,  and  either  uses  its  ideas  and  language  with  entirelj 
different  meaning,  or  it  openly  declares  itself  to  be  the  philoso- 
phy of  heathenism  as  opposed  to  Christianity.  It  calls  itself 
the  new  religion  in  the  sense  that  it  is  that  into  which  all 
religion  is  absorbed,  and  which  has  superseded  Christianity  in 
the  claim  to  being  the  absolute  religion.  We  will  call  it  by  the 
name  which  it  assumes  and  notice  the  points  of  difference  be- 
tween the  two  religions  to  wJiiclL  all  others  are  now  scientifically 
reduced,  and  zvJiicJi  are  now  the  only  competitors  for  the  religious 
approbation  of  men. 

%  2.  Distinction  of  Being  in  Kind  or  Only  in  Degree  ? 

The  new  religion  regards  all  being  as  homogeneous.  As  rep- 
resented by  the  sensational  school,  Materialism — the  Positive 
Philosophy  of  France — matter  is  the  only  reality,  and  thought 
or  mind  is  only  a  quality,  or  accident,  or  mode  of  matter ;  as 
represented  by  the  ideal  school — the  Absolute  Idealism  of  Ger- 
many— thought  or  mind  is  the  only  reality,  and  matter  is  only 
the  objectification  of  mind,  only  the  mode  of  the  movement  of 
thought.  The  new  religion — Pantheism — may  be,  as  we  have 
seen,  material  or  ideal,  but  it  has  in  each  case  the  same  view  of 
the  homogeneousness  of  all  being ;  and  in  its  last  result,  it  is 
pure  Naturalism. 

Christianity — true  Theism — on  the  other  hand,  says  that 
being  is  heterogeneous — that  there  is  besides  the  being  of  the 
matter  of  the  materialist  and  the  thought  or  mind  of  the  ideal- 
ist, the  existence  of  spirit,  of  personal  being.  It  regards  God 
and  man  as  spiritual  existences,  distinct  from  the  material  uni- 
verse of  the  one,  and  from  the  ideal  world  of  the  other.  Pan- 
theism teaches  that  there  is  originally  and,  in  the  strict  sense,  no 
personal  being ;  Theism  declares  that  God  is  a  living,  personal 
being,  and  that  man  is  a  spiritual,  immortal  soul.  The  former 
denies  that  there  is  any  supernatural  being,  any  spaceless  and 
timeless  existence,  any  being  to  whose  existence  space  and  time 
are  not  inherently  significant,  for  whose  knowledge  they  are  not 
necessary  modes  ;  the  latter  declares  that  God  exists  independ- 
ently of  the  universe  with  its  modes  of  space  and  time.  The 
former  denies  that  there  is  any  power  to  whose  action  there  is 
an  alternative — affirms  that  all  being  is  included  in  the  linked 
connection  of  cause  and  effect,  and  that  any  cause  is  cause  only 


THE   UNIVERSE   NOT   NECESSARY    TO    GOD.  243 

for  the  effect  into  which  it  passes  and  for  no  other,  that  the 
cause  could  not  be  without  the  effect  any  more  than  the 
effect  without  the  cause,  that  God  could  no  more  exist 
without  the  universe  than  the  universe  without  God.  The  lat- 
ter, while  it  admits  that  this  is  true  of  nature,  of  the  kind  of 
being  whose  mode  of  existence  is  space  and  time — whether  the 
existence  of  the  ideal  world  of  the  idealist  with  its  subjective 
space  and  time,  or  the  material  world  of  the  materialist  with  its 
objective  space  and  time — yet  declares  that  there  is  power  to 
whose  action  there  is  an  alternative,  power  which  goes  out  into 
action  with  the  alternative  not  so  to  go  out,  or  to  go  out  to  the 
contrary  action  ;  that  it  not  only  produces  the  world,  but  is  in- 
dependent of  it,  can  exist  without  it  so  far  as  any  physical  or 
metaphysical  or  logical  necessity  is  concerned ;  that  though 
God's  moral  excellence  is  such,  His  love  so  overflowing  that  we 
may  not  be  able  to  conceive  that  He  would  exist  without  creat- 
ing, and  must  conclude  that  creation  would  be  a  moral  certainty, 
yet  we  know  that  He  can  exist  without  it,  that  it  is  not  necessary 
to  His  existence.  He  is  necessary  to  the  existence  of  the  world. 
He  brought  it  into  existence ;  He  upholds  and  governs  it  for  an 
end  of  His  own  free  election.  It  is  the  result  of  His  sovereign 
counsel.  While  Theism  admits  that  a  cause  in  nature  is  cause 
only  for  the  effect  which  it  produces  and  for  no  other,  that  to 
the  ongoings  of  nature  there  is  no  alternative,  it  declares  that 
God  is  not  such  a  cause  ;  that  He  is  not  only  cause  for  the  uni- 
verse, but  that  He  is  more  than  that ;  that  to  His  action  there 
is  an  alternative  ;  that  while  the  forces  in  nature  are  conditioned 
powers  He  is  unconditioned ;  that  He  is  the  first  and  the  last, 
the  ground  and  end  of  all  being ;  that  He  goes  out  in  act  from 
Himself  and  returns — every  time  He  goes  forth  into  action 
—  into  and  upon  Himself;  is  self-action  and  self-law — a 
will  in  liberty — a  person.  It  regards  man  also  as  capable 
of  action  with  an  alternative  ;  declares  that  there  is  for  him 
a  spiritual  excellence,  a  moral  worthiness,  a  higher  good  than 
mere  natural  being  or  animal  sensation ;  and  that  he  can 
choose  between  the  behests  of  conscience,  the  claims  of  spiritual 
dignity,  and  the  cravings  of  animal  appetite — between  moral  ex- 
cellence and  sensuous  gratification — that  He  cognizes  a  difference 
in  kind  and  not  merely  in  degree  of  being ;  that  He  sees  an  end 
in  the  reason  different  in  kind  from  the  ends  of  sense,  a  differ- 


244  THE  GREAT  CONFLICT  OF  THE  DAY. 

ence  not  only  between  mind  and  matter,  but  between  true 
spirituality  and  mere  intellectuality — between  pure  spiritual 
worthiness  and  mere  animal  satisfaction — between  true  goodness 
and  mere  enjoyment — between  true  virtue  and  mere  happiness — 
between  love  which  is  blessedness  and  all  craving  of  appetite — 
and  that  having  this  alternative  he  is  capable  of  free  choice,  has 
a  will  in  liberty. 

§  3.  Moral  Responsibility  or  Natural  Necessity  in  Human  Action? 

The  former  teaches  that  there  is  really  no  moral  responsibility 
in  action  ;  that  the  action  of  both  God  and  man  being  necessary, 
all  power  being  without  alternative  to  its  acts,  there  can  be  no 
responsibility  in  its  exercise.  The  latter  declares  that  there  are 
actions  which  are  personal,  are  our  own,  are  acts  of  free  choice, 
that  we  are  moral  agents  and  responsible  for  our  moral  actions. 
The  former  teaches  that  there  is  really  no  moral  quality  in  virtue 
and  vice,  holiness  and  sin ;  that  they  are  in  the  nature  of  things, 
the  necessary  antagonisms  involved  in  the  evolution  of  being,  in 
the  progress  of  human  history  and  development ;  that  they  are 
only  occasions  or  conditions  of  the  movement  of  thought  and 
life ;  that  there  is  in  a  literal  sense  no  virtue,  no  vi'ce,  no  holi- 
ness, no  sin ;  that  these  are  no  real  distinctions ;  that  they  are 
all  alike  and  equally  only  the  necessary  antagonisms  of  life  and 
progress. 

It  is  true  that  the  apostles  of  this  new  religion,  by  an  ambig- 
uity of  language  —  for  which  their  system  and  writings  are 
remarkable  and  in  which  generally  lies  concealed  the  fallacy  by 
which  they  deceive  themselves  as  well  as  others — by  an  ambig- 
uous use  of  words,  speak  of  virtue,  holiness,  freedom ;  of  God, 
spirit,  personality,  etc.  But  their  system  denies  that  there  is 
any  reality  in  that  which  these  terms  literally  mean.  And  hence 
when  they  speak  clearly  and  consistently  with  their  system, 
they  will  tell  you  that  the  ideas  of  sin  and  guilt,  of  duty  and 
repentance  in  their  common  acceptation,  are  absurd :  "  That  the 
helplessnesses  and  sicknesses  of  their  childhood,  their  crying  in 
their  mother's  arms,  their  having  the  measles,  and  their  telling 
lies  and  stealing  things,  are  all  the  same  in  kind  and  on  a  perfect 
level  in  regard  to  responsibility ;  and  that  they  have  as  much 
reason,  and  no  more,  to  repent  of  the  former  as  of  the  latter,  and 
are  as  little  to  blame  for  the  one  as  for  the  other."     And  to  the 


THE    LOGICAL   UNDERSTANDING   TRANSCENDED.  245 

question  what  shall  be  done  with  men  who  rob  and  kill,  etc., 
they  answer  in  substance:  "Treat  them  as  obnoxious  animals, 
as  destructive  machines,  remove  them  as  inconveniences,  abate 
them  as  you  would  any  other  nuisance,  tie  them  up,  imprison 
them  or  hang  them."  That  is  the  whole  of  it — nothing  in  crime 
or  punishment  of  a  moral  character.  The  latter  teaches  that 
these  qualities,  holiness  and  sin,  virtue  and  vice,  are  real  qual- 
ities ;  that  guilt  is  a  reality  and  that  punishment  has  in  it  a 
moral  element. 

§  4.   Tnic  Spirituality  or  Mere  Intellectuality  ? 

The  former  teaches  that  the  cultivation  of  the  intellect  is  the 
only  means  of  attaining  knoxvledge  of  truth,  whether  it  be  divine 
or  human  in  its  origin.  The  latter  that  man  has  God-conscious- 
ness as  well  as  self-consciousness  and  world-consciousness  ;  that 
in  coming  to  self-consciousness,  we  not  only  become  conscious 
of  the  natural  world  as  other  than  ourselves,  but  also  of  the 
supernatural  as  distinct  from  our  being ;  that  God  manifests 
Himself  in  the  conscience.  The  theist  is  thus  prepared  for  the 
declarations  of  Christianity  that  the  Logos,  the  Son  of  God,  is 
life  and  the  life  which  is  the  light  of  men ;  that  the  Eternal 
Word  was  made  flesh,  and  that  He  lighteth  every  man  that 
Cometh  into  the  world ;  that  it  is  only  the  man  who  doeth  the 
divine  will,  as  it  is  made  known  in  the  conscience  and  by  the 
general  divine  revelation  in  nature  and  providence,  who  becomes 
able  to  know  that  this  doctrine,  the  gospel,  is  of  God ;  that 
obedience  to  the  divine  will  is  the  chief  source  of  the  attain- 
ment of  divine  knowledge ;  "  that  eye  hath  not  seen  nor  ear 
heard,  neither  hath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to  conceive 
the  things  which  God  hath  in  reserve  for  them  that  love  Him, 
but  that  He  hath  revealed  them  unto  us  "  and  made  them  a 
matter  of  experience  in  one  point  of  our  relation  to  them,  and 
that  the  central  point — assurance  of  salvation  through  faith  in 
Christ — of  spiritual  experience ;  that  there  is  a  region  of  truth 
that  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the  mere  logical  understanding,  is 
not  to  be  found  in  the  chain  of  cause  and  effect,  is  not  included 
in  any  process  of  mere  science ;  that  by  this  divine  law  of  love 
we  gain  spiritual  knowledge;  that  "he  that  loveth  knoweth 
.  God." 


246  THE  GREAT  CONFLICT  OF  THE  DAY. 

§  5 .   TJte  Worship  of  the  Divine  or  of  the  Hiunaii  ? 

The  former  teaches  that  there  is,  in  the  strict  sense,  no  such 
thing  as  worsJiip,  that  is,  spiritual  worship  ;  that  man's  spiritu- 
ahty  is  measured  by  his  intellectual  culture  ;  that  the  human 
soul  is  to  be  enlightened  only  by  philosophy,  and  the  heart 
purified  only  by  science  ;  that  God  is  not  distinct  from  man,  but 
that  the  consciousness  of  man  is  the  consciousness  of  God ; 
that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  only  one  of  the  manifestations  of  the 
divine  consciousness,  only  one  of  the  manifestations  of  the  idea, 
only  one  of  the  great  philosophical  spirits  of  nature ;  that  if 
you  would  know  truth  you  must  worship  the  goddess  of  reason, 
worship  genius,  worship  science ;  must  become  an  organ  for 
the  glory  of  the  idea;  must  study  political  economy  and  thereby 
know  how  to  construct  a  perfect  government ;  acquaint  yourself 
with  jurisprudence,  and,  thus,  learn  how  to  administer  equal  and 
just  laws  ;  study  sociology,  and  so  become  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  kindness,  generosity,  hospitality.  It  declares  that  man 
is  the  highest  manifestation  of  being,  and  that  the  labor  of  his 
hand  and  the  activity  of  his  intellect,  are  the  highest  worship ; 
that,  therefore,  all  churches,  schools  and  states  which  inculcate 
dependence  on  any  power  higher  than  man,  or  encourage  the 
worship  of  any  object  other  than  humanity  itself,  should  be 
abolished.  The  latter,  on  the  contrary,  teaches  that  there  is 
something  better  than  mere  physical  force  or  intellectual  power, 
than  scientific  operations  or  bodily  exercises  and  manual  labor, 
though  perfectly  consistent  with  them  and  promotive  of  them  : 
that  man  is  dependent  upon  a  being  of  supreme  spiritual  excel- 
lence ;  that  he  must  cultivate  the  heart  by  that  idea  and  bring  it 
into  subjection  to  the  divine  authority  and  have  it  filled  with  di- 
vine love,  that  it  is  only  in  this  way  that  he  comes  into  the  true 
harmony  of  being;  that  God  is  worthy  of  all  reverence,  un- 
bounded reverence,  devotion,  homage  and  love ;  and  that  we  are 
really  brutish  or  wicked,  low  and  vile,  as  long  as  we  do  not 
worship  and  obey  Him. 

§  6.  Personal  Immortality  and  Divine  Revelation  ;  Man  a  Pro- 
duct of  Nature  or  a  Child  of  God"? 

The  former  declares  that  there  is  no  personal  immortality  for 
man,  that  we  are  mere  waves  upon  the  ocean  of  being — waves 


SINFUL    MAN    THE   SUBJECT    OF    REVELATION.  247 

which  succeed  one  another,  and  are  no  more — all  that  remains 
is  the  great  ocean  of  being ;  individuality  and  personality  come 
and  go,  only  the  unconscious,  the  impersonal  abides  forever. 
The  latter  declares  for  life  immortal,  eternal  life.  The  former, 
consequently,  must  necessarily  deny  the  possibility  of  all  special 
divine  revelation,  and  declare  the  reality  of  all  miracles  impossi- 
ble and,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  incredible.  It  can  allow,  in 
its  idea,  no  interpositions  to  come  from  heaven  in  behalf  of 
man — to  come  into  the  causal  nexus  of  things  in  space  and 
time.  It  deems  this  connection  complete  from  eternity  to 
eternity.  It  denies  even  the  miracle  of  creation,  and  hence  in 
material  nature,  it  adopts,  with  Laplace,  exclusively  the  theory 
of  evolution ;  in  animated  nature,  it  traces,  with  Darwin,  man 
back  to  the  ape ;  in  spiritual  life,  such  as  Christianity,  it  traces, 
with  Strauss,  all  back  to  myths.  In  short,  against  all  the  evi- 
dence of  history,  against  all  common  belief,  it  says  we  must 
ignore  the  possibility  of  a  supernatural  revelation.  The  latter 
with  the  Bible,  teaches  both  creation  and  cosmogony,  origina- 
tion and  evolution,  not  as  antagonistic  but  as  combined  in  the 
plan  and  revelation  of  God's  mode  of  creation  and  preservation. 
It  teaches  that  as  God  is  a  living,  personal  being,  He  is  natur- 
ally in  communion  with  personal  beings,  puts  Himself  into 
communication  with  them  ;  that  He  has  revealed  Himself  to 
man  in  the  constitution  of  his  being  and  in  his  environment, 
in  his  spirit  and  in  surrounding  nature ;  and  that  to  complete 
this  communion  and  to  conduct  him  to  his  high  destination, 
and  especially  to  redeem  him  from  the  power  of  sin  and  evil,  it 
is  not  only  possible  and  desirable  but  in  the  highest  degree 
probable  that  He  would  give  a  miraculous  revelation.  It  re- 
gards the  evil  in  the  world  as  sin,  as  sin  in  the  sense  of  its 
having  been  originated  by  moral  creatures  and,  consequently, 
as  guilt.  It  is  therefore  ready  to  regard  the  religious  idea  as 
having  its  fulfillment  and  end  in  the  perfect  revelation  made  by 
the  incarnation  of  the  Eternal  Logos,  in  the  mission  of  Jesus 
Christ  for  the  redemption  and  salvation  of  man.  But  this  leads 
us  to  think  of  the  importance  of  possessing  the  theistic  idea  as 
the  true  Christian  idea ;  to  inquire  what  the  Christian  idea  in 
the  light  of  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  would  require  as 
the  true  Christian  Theism. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  UNDER  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  PRINCIPLE 
OF  THE  REFORMATION,  AND  ESPECIALLY  IN  ITS  ETHICAL  BEAR- 
INGS, REQUIRES  OUR  THEISM  TO  BE,  IN  THE  STRICT  SENSE, 
CHRISTIAN  THEISM. 

§  I.  Natural  Tendency  Toivard  a  Defective  Theism. 

Much  of  the  theistic  philosophy,  and  much  even  of  the 
theistic  faith  in  the  Church,  is  still,  if  not  estranged,  yet  not  in 
complete  harmony  and  syinpathy  with  the  Christian  idea  as  the 
principle  of  the  Reformation  leads  us  to  apprehend  it.  The 
time  will  come,  no  doubt,  when  the  Christian  idea  of  God  and 
the  world  will  be  intellectually  apprehended,  as  well  as  practi- 
cally admitted  and  experienced ;  when  the  testimony  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  hearts  of  Christian  believers  will  be  speculatively 
apprehended  and  received  by  the  universal  thinking  mind,  not 
only  in  the  Church,  but  also  in  the  philosophical  world.  Even 
the  vain  attempts  to  explain  the  universe  of  being  without  the 
admission  of  a  personal  Deity  will,  at  last,  be  found  to  have  been 
occasions  of  a  clearer  apprehension  of  the  relations  of  nature 
and  spirit,  of  reason  and  revelation,  of  science  and  faith  ;  and  of 
preparing  the  way  for  the  time  when  revelation  will  not  be  re- 
garded as  a  mere  external  rule,  but  when  it  will  be  received  as 
an  inner  authority,  objective,  indeed,  and  absolute,  yet  chosen 
and  adopted  by  the  mind,  not  as  a  mere  outward  law  without 
relation  to  the  inner  susceptibilities — to  the  receptivity  and  wants 
of  the  soul,  or  to  the  permanent  and  essential  laws  of  the  mind 
— but  one  with  such  vital  relations  to  the  whole  being  of  man, 
soul  and  body,  intellect,  susceptibility  and  will,  with  such  close 
connection  with  the  spirit  and  the  heart,  that  the  human  intel- 
lect, acting  freely  as  well  as  lovingly  and  gladly,  impelled  by 
practical  necessities,  but  also  cheerfully  following  in  the  path  of 
clear  and  satisfactory  speculative  apprehension,  will  accept  the 
truths  of  Christianity,  and  feel  that  its  highest  freedom  is  not 
only  consistent  with,  but  inseparable  from,  the  most  profound 

(248) 


CONNECTION    OF   TRUE   THEISM    WITH    THE    GOSPEL.  249 

submission  to  its  authority  as  a  special  revelation  from  God. 
But  such  is  the  tendency  of  the  mere  logical  understanding  to 
Monism — of  mere  intellectual  science  to  reduce  all.  things  to  one 
principle — that  Monism  will  always  be  the  tendency  of  the  mind 
when  theology  becomes  a  mere  question  of  intellect.  Absolute 
Monism  or  Absolute  Nescience  will  generally  be  the  result  of 
the  discussions  of  the  relations  of  subject  and  object,  nature  and 
spirit,  God  and  man,  in  the  absence  of  the  true  Christian  experi- 
ence of  assurance  of  salvation — of  the  true  evangelical  appre- 
hension of  the  distinction  between  God  and  man  ;  of  the  one  as 
the  source  of  all  good,  of  the  other  as  receptivity  for  it.  The 
union,  as  well  as  the  distinction  of  being,  is  found  only  in 
saving  faith — in  the  experience  of  salvation  through  faith  in 
Christ. 

§  2.    True  Theism  is  Inseparable  from  the  Gospel  and  Church  of 

Christ. 

Theology,  being  a  science  of  faith,  must  expect  to  be  able  to 
apprehend  the  true  personal  God  only  as  He  is  revealed  in 
Christ.  Martensen  so  impressively  shows  the  necessity  of  the 
influence  of  the  Church  and  the  Bible,  of  faith  and  the  word,  on 
this  point,  that  we  must  quote  his  words  :  "  We  who  have 
grown  up  under  the  influence  of  Christianity  are  accustomed  to 
regard  theism  as  a  natural  religion ;  for  we  find  many  who, 
whilst  refusing  to  believe  in  Christianity  as  a  positive  super- 
natural revelation,  still  cleave  to  the  living  God,  who  reveals 
Himself  in  the  works  of  nature  and  the  course  of  human  life; 
but  it  is  difficult  to  say  how  much  of  this  theism  is  due  to  the 
influence  of  Christianity,  and  how  much  has  a  purely  natural 
origin.  Clear  it  is,  however,  that  this  undefined  theism — apart 
from  Christ,  apart  from  the  Church — which  is  professed  by 
many  of  our  contemporaries,  produces  but  a  vague  sort  of  piety. 
It  is  of  great  importance,  indeed,  as  preparing  the  way  for 
belief  in  a  positive  revelation,  as  a  principle  of  conservation  by 
which  the  soul  is  raised  above  the  world  and  conducted  towards 
the  kingdom  of  God  ;  but  on  no  man  can  it  confer  the  fullness 
of  truth  and  life  after  which  we  all  yearn."  After  noticing,  in 
laudatory  terms,  the  services,  in  this  respect,  of  that  rationalistic 
theist  and  noble-minded  man,  Jacobi,  he  continues  :  "  He  gave 
utterance  to  a  testimony  which  was  written  from  the  creation  of 


250  NECESSITY   OF   A   TRUE    CHRISTIAN    THEISM. 

the  world  in  the  hearts  of  men,  although  the  original  characters 
of  this  sacred  inscription  were  afterwards  darkened  by  the 
hieroglyphics  of  pantheism ;  and  this  is  the  testimony  which 
we  call  the  testimony  of  natural  religion.  This  religion,  how- 
ever, was  merely  a  movement  towards,  not  a  resting  in,  the 
kingdom  of  God.  It  lacked  a  Mediator  between  God  and  man, 
one  to  bridge  over  the  infinite  gap  between  the  creature  and  the 
Eternal,  after  whom  our  hearts  yearn  ('  he  that  seeth  Me  seeth 
the  Father') ;  it  took  no  notice  of  the  problem  of  sin,  and  its 
solution  in  the  gospel  of  the  cross.  And  much  as  this  theism 
may  speak  of  faith,  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term  it  was  not  a 
religion  of  faith;  it  was  rather  the  religion  of  those  yearnings  and 
forebodings  which  stir  the  souls  of  many  in  our  days,  but  which 
can  never  reach  their  goal,  save  in  the  God  of  the  Church." 
"The  word  God,"  says  Luther,  in  a  passage  where  he  attacks 
the  Pantheists  of  that  age,  "the  word  God  has  many  significa- 
tions ;  the  true,  the  right  God,  is  the  God  of  life  and  consola- 
tion, of  righteousness  and  goodness."  These  words,  however, 
did  not  flow  forth  from  a  vague,  undefined  religion  of  yearnings 
and  premonitions,  but  from  the  clearly-defined  religion  of  faith. 
For  Luther  believed  that  the  Lord  of  life  and  consolation,  of 
righteousness  and  goodness,  had  assumed  a  determinate  form, 
had  vouchsafed  His  presence  in  a  determinate  manner  as  the 
God  of  the  Church.  Luther  was  quite  as  well  aware  as  the 
philosophers  that  God  is  omnipresent,  that  He  is  not  shut  up 
in  temples ;  but  he  knew  also  that  God  is  only  present  for  us 
where  He  vouchsafes  His  presence  in  a  special,  determinate 
manner.  "Although  God  is  omnipresent,  He  is  nowhere;  I 
cannot  lay  hold  of  Him  by  my  own  thoughts  without  the 
Word.  But  where  He  Himself  has  ordained  to  be  present, 
there  He  is  certainly  to  be  found.  The  Jews  found  Him  in 
Jerusalem  at  the  throne  of  grace ;  we  find  Him  in  the  Word,  in 
Baptism,  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  Greeks  and  heathens  imitated 
this  by  building  temples  for  their  gods  in  particular  places,  in 
order  that  they  might  be  able  to  find  them  there ;  in  Ephesus, 
for  example,  a  temple  was  built  to  Diana ;  in  Delphi,  one  to 
Apollo.  God  cannot  be  found  in  His  majesty — that  is,  outside 
of  His  revelation  of  Himself  in  His  Word.  The  majesty  of 
God  is  too  exalted  and  grand  for  us  to  be  able  to  grasp  it ;  He 
therefore  shows  us    the    right  way,  to  wit,   Christ,  and    says. 


THE  IDEA  OF  CREATORSHIP  AND  CREATURESHIP,     25 1 

'believe  in  Him,  and  you  will  find  out  who  I  am,  and  what 
are  My  nature  and  will'  The  world  meanwhile  seeks  in  innu- 
merable ways,  with  great  industry,  cost,  trouble  and  labor,  to 
find  the  invisible  and  incomprehensible  God  in  His  majesty. 
But  God  is  and  remains  to  them  unknown,  although  they  have 
many  thoughts  about  Him,  and  discourse  and  dispute  much ; 
for  God  has  decreed  that  He  will  be  unknowable  and  iinappreJien- 
sible  apart  from  Christ." 

The  Christian  idea  of  God  and  the  world — that  which  recog- 
nizes God  as  living  and  personal,  which  neither  shuts  Him  out 
of  the  world  nor  encloses  Him  in  it,  which  regards  Him  as 
transcendent,  supernatural  and  superhuman,  and  yet  immanent 
in  nature  and  man,  the  living  God  of  Providence  and  grace — 
this  idea  is  consistent  with  reason,  and  demanded  by  the  sus- 
ceptibilities and  wants  of  man.  And  it  is  the  only  idea  of  God 
consistent  with  the  conscience,  the  moral  consciousness,  and 
especially  with  the  Christian  consciousness,  with  the  experience 
of  justification,  of  peace  and  communion  with  God,  of  assurance 
of  salvation  through  faith  in  Christ,  and  with  the  high  and  holy 
teachings  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  The  idea  of  creatorship  and 
creatureship,  of  the  world  as  standing  in  the  relation  of  creature 
to  God — of  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  affiliation  of  men  as 
standing  in  the  relation  of  children  toward  God  as  the  heavenly 
Father;  of  the  world  as  dependent  on  God;  as  not  eternal, 
but  as  having  had  a  beginning ;  as  created  out  of  nothing  or 
from  the  possibilities  of  God's  will ;  of  the  existence  of  crea- 
tures, not  as  necessary,  physically  or  metaphysically,  or  logic- 
ally, but  merely  certain ;  and  this  certainty,  a  moral  certainty, 
arising  not  from  any  want  but  from  the  fullness  of  divine  love, 
not  from  any  craving  of  appetite,  or  any  impulse  of  passion,  but 
from  the  holy,  free  love  of  Him  who  is  self  satisfied  and  hath 
need  of  nothing;  morally  certain  only  because  it  has  actually 
occurred,  and  must,  consequently,  be  consistent  with  infinite 
excellence  and  perfectly  worthy  of  God ;  the  idea  of  God  as 
subject  to  no  necessary  connections  of  cause  and  effect,  as  in  no 
necessary  relations,  but  as  freely  putting  Himself  in  relation;  as 
creating  the  world  but  not  losing  Himself  in  His  operations  ;  as 
cause  of  the  world,  yet  above  it ;  in  it,  yet  comprehensive  of  it ; 
as  not  a  something,  but  a  person  ;  not  the  All,  but  all  in  all 
and  over  all — this  is  the  true  Christian  theism,  the  true  Chris- 


252  NECESSITY    OF    A    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    THEISM. 

tian  idea  of  God  which  we  must  accept  if  we  would  appropriate 
the  true  system  of  divine  truth.  It  is,  indeed,  the  only  true 
conception  of  the  Absolute,  as  not  only  not  controlled  by  any 
other  but  as  self  controlled. 

§  3.   The  Connection  of  True  Theism  with  Christian  Ethics. 

True  Christian  theism  is  equally  necessary  to  the  true  scien- 
tific apprehension  of  the  Christian  life.  Not  only  the  dogmatic, 
but  the  ethical  phase ;  not  only  the  dogmatic,  but  the  ethical 
elements  of  Christianity  require,  for  their  speculative  apprehen- 
sion, a  true  Christian  theism.  The  exposition  of  the  Christian 
life,  as  well  as  the  apprehension  of  the  Christian  doctrine, 
requires  a  return  to  the  Reformation,  and  the  adoption,  in  the 
strict  sense,  of  the  Christian  idea  of  God  and  the  world,  of 
religion  and  man,  as  it  is  involved  in  the  principle  of  the  Refor- 
mation. The  scientific  apprehension  of  the  Christian  life  must 
be  divested  more  and  more  of  all  vestiges  of  the  perversions 
and  corruptions  introduced  by  the  heathen  idea  of  the  nature 
of  God  and  man,  and  of  the  relations  between  them.  We  must 
apprehend  clearly  the  truth,  that  no  idea  which  falls  short  of 
the  conception  of  God  as  a  personal  being,  in  whom  morality 
is  eternally  realized,  from  whom  all  good  must  be  derived,  and 
whose  will  must  be  the  revelation  of  the  law  of  all  moral 
action ;  and  of  man  as  a  spiritual  being,  receptive  of  divine 
influence,  and  susceptible  to  divine  communion,  can  be  the 
universally  valid  idea  of  ethical  life. 

The  history  of  Christian  ethics  shows  that  the  Christian  mind 
in  its  theological  apprehensions  had  never,  before  the  Reforma- 
tion, entirely  escaped  from  the  influence  of  the  heathen  idea. 
Men's  hearts  in  Christendom  were  ethically  better  than  their 
heads.  The  practical  appropriation  of  the  Christian  idea  was 
more  complete  and  true  than  the  speculative  apprehension  of  it. 
So  much  was  this  the  case,  that  it  is  very  questionable  whether 
the  purity  and  development  of  the  Christian  life  were  not  more 
hindered  than  promoted  by  the  prevalent  ethical  systems.  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  the  greatest  benefit  to  be  derived  from  them  is 
found  in  the  necessity,  thus  made  manifest,  of  a  more  thoroughly 
Christian  ethical  system;  a  more  decidedly  Christian  theism — 
the  apprehension  of  both  the  subjective  and  objective  grounds 
of  morality  as  they  are  fully  made  known  in  the  appropriation 


ITS    CONNECTION    WITH    CHRISTIAN    ETHICS.  253 

and  experience  of  Christianity ;  of  the  true  idea  of  sin  in  its 
power  and  guilt,  and  of  grace  as  it  is  revealed  in  the  divine 
redemption  and  experienced  by  saving  faith ;  of  God  both  as 
Creator  and  Reconciler,  as  reconciled  to  man  in  Christ,  and 
bringing  him  into  life-communion  with  Himself;  and  of  man  as 
not  a  nature-entity,  but  a  person  with  a  personal  peculiarity  in 
him  and  a  moral  goal  before  him ;  of  saving  faith  as  the  begin- 
ning of  affiliation  with  God ;  and  of  the  eternal  life  of  holiness 
and  freedom  for  which  he  is  destined,  inspiring  him  with  the 
spirit  of  a  child  of  God,  and  leading  him  to  live  and  act  as  an 
heir  of  God,  a  joint-heir  with  Christ  of  everlasting  blessedness; 
of  the  moral  law  as  grounded  not  merely  in  the  excellence  of 
the  finite,  but  in  that  of  the  infinite  spirit,  and  yet  as  not  purely 
outward  and  objective,  but  a  law  of  which  his  nature  is  recep- 
tive, a  law  dwelling  within  him  and  becoming  his  personal  pos- 
session, not  an  external  yoke,  but  an  inner  power,  the  comple- 
ment of  his  personal  being — in  short,  of  man  as  living  and  acting 
not  as  an  isolated  individual,  nor  as  being  absorbed  in  the  All, 
but  as  a  personal  subject  in  full  life-communion  with  God  in 
Christ  by  the  receptivity  of  faith  on  his  part,  and  by  the  gift  of 
grace  on  the  part  of  God.  From  this  point  of  union  between 
God  and  man,  springs,  on  the  one  hand,  the  true  Christian  idea 
for  the  construction  of  the  dogmatical  system,  and,  on  the  other, 
for  the  attainment  of  a  complete  ethical  science.  Only  from 
this,  is  the  true  apprehension  of  sin  and  holiness,  of  freedom  and 
grace,  of  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man, 
made  entirely  practicable.  "  In  the  emancipation  of  the  human 
spirit  by  redemption,  in  the  taking  up  of  the  moral  idea  into  the 
inner  heart  of  the  consciousness,  there  lie  now,  the  possibility 
of,  and  the  incentive  to,  a  scientific  development  of  the  moral 
consciousness.  Heathendom  developed  an  ethical  science  only 
on  the  basis  of  a  presumed  freedom  and  autonomy  of  the  spirit 
of  the  natural  man;  the  Old  Testament  religion  developed  none 
at  all,  because  in  it  the  divine  law  was  as  yet  an  absolutely  ob- 
jective and  merely  passively-given  one,  to  which  man  could 
stand  only  in  an  obeying  relation.  But  Christianity  regains  for 
the  human  spirit  its  true  freedom — makes  the  merely  objective 
law  into  an  also  perfectly  subjective  one,  into  one  that  lives  in 
the  heart  of  the  regenerated  man  as  his  real  property,  one  that 
enlightens  the  reason  and  becomes  thereby  truly  rational — and 


254  NECESSITY   OF    A    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    THEISM. 

hence  there  is  here  given  the  possibility  of  shaping  this  pure 
moral  subject-matter  as  embraced  in  the  divinely  enlightened 
conscience,  into  free  scientific  development." 

Now  while  "the  religious  consciousness  of  the  moral  was,  in- 
deed, given  in  high  perfection  in  the  first  form  of  Christianity," 
the  scientific  apprehension  of  the  idea  was  very  slow  and  grad- 
ual ;  and  was  never  made  in  its  purity,  freed  from  all  vestiges  of 
the  heathen  idea,  until  the  Reformation.  This  is  manifest  in  the 
vain  attempt  at  the  coordination,  subordination,  or  superordina- 
tion  between  the  philosophical  and  the  theological  virtues. 
There  was  a  lack  of  the  true  speculative  apprehension  of  Christ- 
ian Theism.  The  heathen  idea  of  God  as  indeterminate  being, 
was  more  or  less  present,  connecting  with  the  Theism  of  the 
Scholastics,  Deistic  elements  ;  and  with  that  of  the  Mystics, 
pantheistical  tendencies.  And  we  have  in  the  ideal  Pantheism 
of  John  Scotus  Erigena  only  a  more  scientific  system  of  the 
heathen  elements  still  remaining  more  or  less  in  all  the  existing 
apprehensions  of  the  theological  mind,  only  brought  so  com- 
pletely into  scientific  form  that  it  was  not  understood  by  many ; 
and  it  brought  to  the  consciousness  of  the  few  who  did  under- 
stand it,  the  fact  of  the  existence  of  these  elements,  and  became 
the  occasion  of  turning  attention  to  the  importance  of  a  more 
decidedly  Christian  Theism. 

§  4.   The  True  Speculative  Apprehension  of  this  Connection 
First  Made  at  the  Reformation. 

At  the  Reformation  Luther  had  so  deep  a  sense  of  the  true 
Christian  Theism,  and  so  high  an  appreciation  of  the  peculiar 
ethical  ideas  springing  from  the  principle  of  the  Reformation, 
that  he  shrank  from  all  attempts  at  preparing  a  system  of  scien- 
tific ethics.  The  distinct  elements,  the  ethical  and  the  religious, 
had  found  their  point  of  union,  and  he  seemed  in  this  case  also 
to  feel  that  we  need  a  "  new  language  in  which  to  express  the 
New  Wisdom."  Just  as  in  the  case  of  church  organization  and 
government,  he  feared  that  the  materials  were  not  yet  provided 
for  scientific  exhibition ;  and,  lest  men  should  fall  back  into  Le- 
galism, he  preferred  to  wait  until  the  gospel  in  its  vital  relations 
to  the  mind  as  the  power  of  God,  should  have  produced  a  more 
general  and  complete  development  of  the  Christian  life.  "  He 
had,"  says  Wuttke,  "  An  anxiety  lest  such   a  work  might  sink 


FIRST    APPREHENDED    ONLY   AT    THE    REFORMATION.  255 

the  free  moral  activity  of  the  Christian  from  the  sphere  of  faith- 
communion  with  Christ  into  unfree  and  juridical  forms.  He 
expressed  it  repeatedly,  that  the  true  believer  needs  no  law  at 
all,  because  faith  is  both  law  and  power,  and  spontaneously 
works  the  God-pleasing  out  of  free  love  without  being  ham- 
pered by  an  objective  law."  "The  Christian's  love  is  to  be  an  out- 
gushing  love,  flowing  from  within  out  of  the  heart,  out  of  his 
own  little  fountain;  the  spring  and  the  stream  are  themselves  to 
be   good — are   not  to  draw  their  waters  from  without.      Christ 

o 

was  a  redeemer,  not  a  law-giver,  and  the  gospel  is  not  to  be 
turned  into  a  book  of  laws." 

Luther  felt  that  ethical  as  well  as  dogmatic  science  must  have 
its  root  in  saving  faith,  in  the  faith  that  worketh  by  love. 
Dorner  says  of  Luther's  position  on  this  point :  "  How  justify- 
ing faith  according  to  its  essence,  is  the  fruitful  principle  of  sanc- 
tification  or  of  the  Christian -moral  life,  we  have  learned 
especially  from  '  The  Sermon  on  the  freedom  of  the  Christian 
Man.'  Unselfish,  pure,  God-like  love  is  kindled  by  the  humil-^ 
iating  power  of  God's  love  toward  the  sinner,  pardoning  gratui- 
tously and  from  pure  grace.  Its  prevenient  nature  dissipates  fear, 
but  it  also  destroys  the  disposition  to  disown  or  deny  one's  sin 
to  Christ  or  ourselves  ;  for  this  would  be  to  deny  to  Christ  the 
merit  of  His  benefits.  Justification,  as  a  divine  act  for  Christ's 
sake,  does,  indeed,  precede  all  inner  changes  for  the  better 
in  man,  and  exhibit  solely  the  reconciled  paternal  heart  of 
God — the  willing  of  reconciliation  in  God,  so  to  speak,  in  the 
inner  forum  of  the  divine  counsel.  Love,  or  the  new  life  of  man, 
has  no  place,  either  as  merit  or  even  as  condition,  before  this  liv- 
ing will  of  God  in  His  heart  to  regard  men  for  Christ's  sake  as 
reconciled  and  justified.  On  the  other  hand  this  new  divine 
view  of  men,  which  exists — not  on  account  of  their  connection 
with  Christ  through  faith — but  in  virtue  of  the  communion  of 
Christ  with  them  even  when  they  are  yet  sinners,  resting  solely 
upon  God's  unmerited,  free  grace,  does  not  remain  in  God  as  a 
sealed  up  or  inactive  decree  ;  but  the  gospel  is  the  joyful  mes- 
sage of  it.  And  this  revelation  is  powerful  enough  to  carry 
with  it  a  transformation  of  the  entire  inner  world.  This  it  ac- 
complishes by  wooing  the  humiliated  conscience  of  the  un- 
worthy sinner  to  a  recognition  of  the  prevenient  act  of  love  on  the 
part  of  the  suffering  Mediator,  and  to  a  reciprocation  of  it  to- 


256  NECESSITY    OF    A    TRUE   CHRISTIAN    THEISM. 

gether  with  believing  commitment  to  Him.  As  faith  apprehends 
Christ  as  it  is  apprehended  of  Him  in  the  fullness  of  His  self- 
communicating  favor,  so  there  is  necessarily  posited  in  such 
faith  participation  in  the  nctv  life,  as  well  as  in  the  salvation  of 
Christ.  But  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  that  is,  the  reconciliation  of 
God  with  the  sinner,  has  not  this  new  life  in  any  way  as  its  cause, 
nor  even  the  man's  commitment  of  himself  to  Christ  in  faith  ; 
much  more,  on  the  contrary,  are  forgiveness  of  sin  and  all  salva- 
tion gained  and  secured  solely  through  the  communion  of  Christ 
with  men. 

"But  just  as    firmly  as  stands  the  objective  validity  of  the 
offered  forgiveness  of  sin  on  the  part   of  God,  before  faith  even 
exists,  so  firmly  stands  this  other  fact  that  only  through  faith  can 
this  forgiveness — though  valid  in  itself — be  personally  appropri- 
ated and  enjoyed.     The  offer  of  forgiveness  exists  before  faith, 
and  is  made  known  to  those  not  yet  believing  in  order  tJiat  they 
may  believe.     If  they  despise  this  message  in  which  the  inmost 
pure  love  toward  the  unworthy  sinner  is  revealed,  there  is  hence- 
forth no  more  deliverance  for  them ;  they  remain  in   death  and 
its  irresistible   developments.     Thus,   they  frustrate  the  will  of 
grace,  valid  even  for  them,  and  are  lost,  not  on  account  of  their 
former  sins,  but  because  they  allow  their  sins  to  proceed  to  the 
point  of  despising  even  the  love  of  Christ  which   suffered   for 
them.     On  the  other  hand,  the  believers  become  believers  only 
hereby  that  they  receive  the    gospel    as    grace,    as    prevenient 
manifestation  of  love  toward   the   sinner,   consequently,  with  a 
knowledge  and  feeling  of  their  unworthiness.     For    otherwise 
they  would  not,  in  their  receiving,  know  what  they  received ; 
would  not,  consequently,  in  fact,  have  accepted  grace   as  such, 
although  it  was  valid  for  them.     If  this  reflection  shows  that  to 
a  believing  reception  of  grace  necessarily  belongs  repentance ; 
and,  consequently,  an  incipient  moral  change  (which,  however, 
is  wrought  through  the  offer  of  salvation),  then  does  the  power 
of  positive  moral  renewal  to  that  which  is  negative  (repentance) 
lie  in  the  faith  which  puts  man  into  communion  with  Christ  and 
all  His  benefits,  and -in  which  true  repentance  is  completed.     But 
the  power  of  Christ,  in  which  faith  obtains  participation,  becomes 
the  impulse  of  the   personal,  new  life  and  striving  for  holiness. 
Especially  does  it  become  such  through  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence of  that    gift    of  love    which    is    not    given   piecemeal    or 


LUTHER   AND    MELANCHTHON,  257 

dependent  upon  certain  performances  and  stages  of  inner 
growth,  but  which  holds  entire  and  full  for  man.  even  now  in  his 
imperfection.  This  is  the  experience  of  the  inner  witness  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  of  the  forgiveness  of  sin  and .  peace  with  God;  in 
virtue  of  which  our  heart  gives  us  witness  that  we  are  children 
of  God.  This  is  the  joyous,  blessed  back-ground  of  our 
temporal,  growing,  yet  constantly  imperfect  life — the  perpetual 
complementing  of  our  imperfection  unto  righteousness  before 
God,  if  we  only  remain  in  faith.  This,  the  ideal  anticipation  of 
our  perfection,  and  the  constant  enjoyment  of  our  personal 
restoration,  occur  already  even  in  our  temporal  consciousness,  in 
order  that  the  ideal  may  be  actualized  through  the  saving  power 
of  communion  with  Christ. 

"  Sanctification  or  the  moral  life-shaping  of  the  Christian,  is,  for 
Luther,  only  the  necessary  phenomenon  and  manifestation  of 
the  power  which  is  posited  in  faith.  Faith  is  the  doer  ;  love,  the 
deed.  Faith  corresponds  to  the  divine  nature  in  Christ  (to  the 
pneuma);  love,  to  the  human  nature.  Hence,  he  even  calls  the 
latter  the  incarnation  of  faith  (fides  incarnata).  The  advance  to 
love  is  so  much  a  necessity  of  the  higher  nature  that  it  may  be 
compared  to  the  necessity  according  to  which  a  good  tree  bears 
good  fruit;  so  that  where  these  fruits  are  absent,  either  faith  was 
not  present,  or  there  must  have  occurred  a  disease — an  arrest  of 
the  sap,  a  retrogressive  movement,  and  a  destruction  of  the 
work  of  God  which  had  been  begun.  Therefore,  he  is  not  afraid 
to  treat  the  iiezv  life  of  love  which  is  being  formed  as  a  mark  of 
faith  not  only  for  others,  but  also  for  the  personal  consciousness 
and  the  certainty  of  salvation.  Of  course,  he  does  not  treat  it 
as  if  we  had  to  place  confidence  in  this  still  constantly  imperfect 
life  of  love,  instead  of  relying  upon  Christ,  but  he  does  posi- 
tively mean  that  we  possess,  in  the  growth  of  the  apprehended 
love  in  us,  in  like  manner  as  in  the  sacramental,  a  faith- 
strengthening  pledge  of  the  perduring  state  of  grace. 

"As  to  what  relates  now  to  the  development  of  tJie  zvorld  of 
ethics,  Luther  certainly  remains  stationary  with  faith  as  the 
principle  of  sanctification.  He  exhibits  it  in  all  its  fullness 
and  power,  in  all  its  blessedness,  as  the  source  whence  spring 
delight  and  free  motive  to  all  good."  He  felt  that  while  this 
new  life  could  be  and  is  experienced  by  the  Christian,  indepen- 
dently of  all  science,  it  would  take  a  long  time  to  prepare  the 
17 


258  NECESSITY   OF   A    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    THEISM. 

way  for  a  scientfiic  apprehension  and  development  of  the  idea  of 
it.  And,  after  hundreds  of  years  of  experience  and  scientific 
development,  the  Church  must  now  g'o  back  to  this  principle  of 
the  Reformation,  and  appropriate  it  aneiv,  if  she  would  have  a 
true  science  of  ethics.  How  much  Luther  would  appreciate — 
were  he  still  living — the  effort  to  do  this,  is  manifest  in  his 
treatment  of  the  effort  of  Melanchthon.  "  Melanchthon,"  con- 
tinues Dorner,  "  without  denying  this  natural,  free  impulse  of 
faith  to  become  love,  pays  attention  more  to  the  ways  and 
means  which  belong  to  the  doing  of  the  good.  In  addition  to 
the  gratitude  for  the  salvation  obtained  in  Christ  as  the  constant 
impulse  to  do  the  divine  will,  he  attends  also  to  the  moral 
knowledge  or  wisdom  through  which  alone  it  remains  not 
merely  in  the  good  will  in  general,  but  comes  to  the  choosing 
of  the  definite  good  which  lies  before  us  ;  in  virtue  of  which, 
further,  the  Christian  first  attains  not  merely  to  an  abrupt  or 
impulsive  acting  of  grateful  faith,  but  to  a  connected  forming  of 
the  moral  life.  Melanchthon  sees  clearly  that  we  do  not,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  come  to  such  a  connected  formation  through 
faith,  as  this  is,  indeed,  directed  to  God,  and  not  to  the  world. 
It  is  necessary  for  this  purpose  to  acquire  a  connected  moral 
knowledge  of  ourselves  and  of  the  world.  Therefore,  especially 
is  ctJiics  of  interest  to  Melanchthon — the  man  of  science.  He 
laid  great  stress  upon  the  law,  even  in  the  regenerate,  and  for  this 
purpose  he  returned,  on  the  one  hand,  to  the  antique  ethics,  es- 
pecially to  Aristotle;  on  the  other,  he  converts  to  use,  the  ethics 
of  the  Old  Testament.  He  treats,  with  special  love,  the  prov- 
erbs, and,  as  the  correct  moral  treatment  of  the  earthly  things 
and  relations  is  conditioned  by  their  nature  and  life-laws,  he 
investigates  the  world  of  the  first  creation,  physics,  jurispru- 
dence as  sources,  partly  for  presuppositions  of  ethics;  partly  for 
moral  knowledge  itself  But  he  constantly  places  all  again 
under  the  point  of  view  of  faith;  because  only  thus  can  the 
centrally  ethical,  that  is  religion,  remain  the  soul  of  the  entire 
human  life  Only  thus  can  the  ill-founded  antagonism  between 
morality  and  religion  be  put  aside,  and  the  source  of  power  for 
perfecting  the  known  good  be  kept  open.  Luther — who  often 
[e.  g.  in  the  introduction  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans)  speaks  as 
if  faith  would  of  itself,  without  anything  further,  hit  with  unfail- 
ing tact  upon  the  morally  correct — knew  full  well,  on  the  other 


INSEPARARLE    FROM    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    ETHICS.  259 

hand,  how  much  he  possessed  in  this  ethical  gift  of  Melanch- 
thon.  He  defends  him  as  skillfully  as  bravely,  against  those 
who  thought  the  faith  would  be  endangered,  if  it  were  not 
exclusively  everything.  For  he  well  knew  that  precisely  then 
would  faith  cease  again  to  have  the  dignity  of  the  pTinciple, 
when  it  should  not  be  principle  foj'  something.  Faith  alone 
justifies,  but  faith  is  not  alone  (Fides  justificat,  sed  fides  non  est 
solitaria)." 

The  principle  of  the  Reformation  thus  requires  a  theism 
which  will  apprehend  God,  both  in  His  immanency  in  the  world, 
and  in  His  transcendency  above  the  world ;  in  his  distinction 
from  man,  and  in  his  union  with  him  in  Christ  through  faith ; 
the  law  as  distinct  from  him  and  yet  written  in  his  heart,  and 
man  himself,  as  renewed  by  grace,  no  more  the  subject  of 
condemnation,  no  longer  a  mere  creature,  but  a  dear  child  of 
God.  According  to  the  heathen  world-view,  ethics  could  only 
be  the  description  of  the  operation  of  a  natural  law  ;  according 
to  the  Judaistic  idea  of  God  and  man,  it  could  only  be  the  ex- 
position of  a  law,  both  distinct  from  man  and  external  to  him.  It 
preserved  against  the  heathen  idea  the  one  great  element  of  the- 
ism, the  distinction  between  God  and  the  world,  the  creatorship 
of  God  and  the  creatureship  of  man,  and  the  subjection  of  man  to 
the  authority  of  God  as  personal  lawgiver  and  judge.  But  it  is 
only  the  Christian  idea  that  views  the  law  as  distinct  from,  and 
yet  possessed  by  the  subject — of  the  law  as  put  into  the  mind. 
In  the  seventeenth  century  the  Pietists  returned,  in  this  respect 
also,  to  the  principle  of  the  Reformation. 

§  5.   The  Pietistic  Return  to  the  Apprehension  of  the  Distinction 
and  Union  of  God  and  Man  in  Saving  Faith. 

"  Spener,"  to  quote  again  from  Wuttke,  "  brought  again  into 
the  foreground  the  thought  which,  while,  indeed,  dogmatically 
admitted,  had  never  yet  been  emphasized  morally,  namely,  that 
faith  without  works  is  dead ;  the  sanctification  of  the  heart  and 
life  does  not  simply  follow  upon,  and  stand  in  connection  with, 
true  faith,  but  is  in  such  faith  already  itself  directly  contained  ; 
there  are  not  two  spiritual  life-streams,  but  only  one  ;  the  moral 
personality  itself,  as  justified  by  faith,  admits  of  no  falling  apart 
of  faith  and  morality;  all  religious  life  is,  immediately  and  neces- 
sarily, at  the  same   time  moral ;  is  not  simply  followed  by  the 


26o  NECESSITY   OF    A    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    THEISM. 

moral  as  a  second  collateral  element.  In  the  eyes  of  declining 
orthodoxy,  religion  had  become  too  much  a  mere  objective 
something  by  which  the  religious  subject  is  simply  impressed 
and  influenced,  but  not  thoroughly  permeated.  Pietism  brought 
religion  and  its  divine  spirit-principle  again  entirely  within  the 
Christian  subject,  as  now  transformed,  to  create  a  new,  spirit- 
witnessing,  objective  morality." 

§  6.   TJie  Declension  Resulting  from  Mere  Intellectualisni. 

In  general,  and  especially  in  proportion  as  theological  subjects 
were  transferred  from  the  sphere  of  conscious  experience  to  that 
of  the  logical  understanding,  the  influence  of  the  heathen  idea 
was  still  present — the  idea  of  God  as  mere  abstract  being,  and 
of  law  as  mere  impersonal  force  ;  of  man  as  either  altogether 
dependent,  and  necessarily  determined,  or  as  absolutely  inde- 
pendent and  free  in  his  moral  actions,  according  as  this  idea 
took  on  a  pantheistic  or  a  deistic  aspect.  Wuttke  says  of  the 
philosophical  systems  down  to  the  days  of  Kant :  "  Previous 
philosophical  ethics  had  gone  astray  in  two  respects.  The  two 
equally  true  and  necessary  thoughts  that,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
moral  idea  has  a  universally  valid  significancy,  that  it  cannot  be 
dependent  in  its  obligating  character  on  the  chance  caprice  of 
the  individual  subject ;  and  that  yet,  on  the  other,  it  has  in  fact 
for  its  end  the  perfection  of  the  person,  and  hence  also  his 
happiness,  had  been  one-sidedly  held  fast  to,  each  for  itself 
Naturalistic  Pantheism  gave  validity  simply  to  the  objective 
significancy  of  the  moral — absolutely  annihilated  the  freedom  of 
the  will,  and  conceived  by  the  moral  law  as  a  mere  fatalism 
unalterably  determining  every  individual ;  and  when,  with  the 
champions  of  materialistic  atheism,  this  notion  of  the  unfree 
determination  of  the  individual  ultimated  practically  in  an  entire 
letting-loose  of  the  passions,  it  was  not  without  the  countenance 
of  strict  consistency  with  the  ground  principle.  The  opposite 
tendency  proceeded  from  the  subject,  emphasizing  his  free  will, 
and  hence  looking  less  to  the  ground  than  to  the  end  of  moral 
activity  ;  man  was  to  be  determined  by  nothing  which  does  not 
leave  him  absolutely  free ;  which  does  not  contribute  to  his 
individual  advantage ;  in  other  words,  by  the  thought  of  indi- 
vidual happiness.  While  the  first  tendency  undermined 
morality  by  the  fact  that  it  annihilated  the  moral  subject,  sinking 


TENDENCY    OF    PHILOSOPHY   TO    MONISM.  26 1 

him  into  a  mere  unfree  member  of  the  great  world-machine,  the 
other  tendency  imperiled  morality  in  its  innermost  essence  in 
a  no  less  degree,  by  the  fact  that  it  required  no  self-subordina- 
tion of  the  subject  under  a  per  sc  valid  idea,  but  emphasized  the 
absolute  claims  of  the  individual  personality ;  so  that,  in  fact,  in 
their  ultimate  consequences,  the  two  opposite  tendencies  resulted 
equally  in  the  letting-loose  of  the  individual  in  his  unbridled 
naturalness.  Christian  ethics  could  not,  save  by  letting  itself  be 
led  astray  by  philosophy,  fall  into  either  of  these  errors." 

§  7.   Tendency  of  the  Philosophical  Systems  of  Ethics  to  Monism. 

These  opposite  tendencies  can  only  be  avoided  by  finding  the 
point  of  union  of  the  universal  requirements  and  tendencies  of  the 
moral  law,  with  the  freedom  and  end  of  the  individual  moral  sub- 
ject, as  it  is  exhibited  in  the  principle  of  the  Reformation.  Kant 
maintained,  indeed,  the  validity  pei'  se  of  the  moral  idea,  against 
both  the  mere  naturalistic  and  the  mere  subjective  tendencies. 
But  as  he  finds  the  basis  of  the  rule  of  right  only  in  the  excel- 
lence of  the  finite,  and  not  in  that  of  the  infinite  Spirit,  he  fails 
as  well  to  give  a  universally  valid  law  of  life,  as  to  find  the 
point  of  union  between  religion  and  morality.  And  his  system, 
fully  and  legitimately  carried  out  by  Fichte,  ended  in  the  old 
heathen  Pantheism.  Wuttke  says  :  "  As  Kant  had  denied  to 
the  pure  reason  all  objective  knowledge,  and  also  placed  all  con- 
tents of  the  practical  reason  exclusively  in  the  subject,  and  de- 
rived the  validity  of  the  law  of  reason  simply  from  the  subject ; 
so  Fichte  simply  made  the  validity  of  the  individual  subject,  the 
ego,  all-predominant,  conceived  all  objective  existence  merely 
negatively  as  the  non-ego,  and  based  cognition  and  volitionating 
absolutely  on  the  individual  ego.  The  ego  and  the  non-ego  re- 
ciprocally determine  each  other,  and,  hence  stand  in  reciprocal 
relation.  The  ego  posits  itself  as  determined  by  the  non-ego, 
that  is,  it  cognizes  ;  and  it  posits  itself,  on  the  other  hand,  as  de- 
termining in  relation  to  the  non-ego,  that  is,  it  volitionates.  The 
two  are  only  two  phases  of  the  same  thing,  inasmuch  as  the 
non-ego  in  its  entire  being  exists  only  so  far  as  it  is  posited  by 
the  ego,  so  that  strictly  speaking,  the  ego  is  its  own  object. 
The  ego  should  in  all  its  determinations  be  posited  only  by 
itself — should  be  absolutely  independent  of  all  non-ego.  Only 
as  volitionating,  as   absolutely  determining  the   non-ego,  is  the 


262  NECESSITY    OF    A    TRUE    CHRISTIAN    THEISM. 

ego  free  and  independent.  The  ego  as  rational,  slioidd  not  per- 
mit itself  to  be  determined  by  any  non-ego  independent  of  it, 
should  be  absolutely  independent,  should  make  all  non-ego  ab- 
solutely dependent  on  itself,  should  exercise  absolute  causality 
upon  the  same."  And  the  ego  thus  being  conceived  as  absolute, 
the  system  takes  a  mystico-pantheistic  turn.  "  He  expressly 
presents,  as  the  goal  of  morality,  complete  '  self-annihilation' 
— not,  however,  in  the  Christian  sense  of  moral  self-denial,  but 
rather  in  the  sense  of  the  religion  of  India,"  that  is,  of  Panthe- 
ism. Thus  we  have  the  heathen  idea  in  the  beginning  of  that 
full  modern  development  which  it  has  since  received,  at  the 
hands  of  Schelling,  Hegel,  and  Von  Hartmann. 

§  8.   Science  cajinot  of  Itself  Decide  with  Certainty  in  the  SpJiere 
of  the  Personal,  of  the  Moral  and  the  Free. 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  appears  that  Theism,  much  as  it 
commends  itself  to  the  reason  of  man  when  it  is  once  pro- 
duced, would  yet,  without  the  revelation  of  God  in  His  person- 
ality, not  be  very  easily  made  the  subject  of  scientific  apprehen- 
sion. Science  of  itself  can  apprehend  only  that  which  occurs  ac- 
cording to  fixed  and  uniform  law;  what  are  the  acts  of  will,  the 
results  of  personal,  free  will,  it  cannot  of  itself  determine.  Will 
can  reveal  itself  distinctly  and  fully  only  in  acts — only  in  his- 
tory. Only  the  necessary,  not  the  free,  can  be  the  subject  of 
science  in  the  strict,  the  demonstrative  sense.  But  acts  of  will, 
even  when  in  accordance  with  infinite  reason,  are  not  necessary; 
and,  consequently,  can  be  known  only  by  infinite  reason  with 
absoluie  certainty.  They  are  not  certain  physically,  metaphysic- 
ally or  logically,  but  only  morally  certain;  and,  consequently, 
they  can  never  be  known  with  certainty  by  the  finite  mind  until 
they  have  transpired  or  have  been  made  known.  Even  creation 
is  not  a  necessary  act.  The  presence  and  the  action  of  the  infi- 
nite personal  spirit  first  becomes  known  to  the  creature  by  rev- 
elation. Spirit  can  only  make  itself  known  to  spirit,  and  this 
revelation  must  be  made  in  word  and  deed — must  be  historical. 
Such  a  revelation,  though  not  contrary  to  reason,  will  transcend 
the  finite  powers  of  apprehension  and  demonstration.  It  seems, 
therefore,  that  to  have  true  Theism  we  must  have  Christian 
Theism — that  is,  the  Theism  which  is  the  result  of  the  Christian 
revelation.     There  must  first  be  divine  revelation  as  a  historical 


CHRISTIAN    THEISM    AND   THE    LUTHERAN    IDEA.  263 

fact,  sufficiently  authenticated  by  testimony;  and  this  revelation 
must  have  such  relation  to  the  susceptibilities  and  wants  of 
man,  that  as  the  action  of  spirit  it  will  have  power  upon  spirit; 
that  its  reality  will  convey  its  own  evidence  with  it  to  the  sin- 
cere and  earnest  religious  spirit,  to  the  soul  longing  for  com- 
munion with  a  spirit  higher  and  better  than  itself,  to  the  heart 
yearning  for  salvation  from  its  conscious  degradation  and  mis- 
ery. In  short,  the  principle  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation, 
involving  as  it  does  objective  revelation  and  subjective  certainty  of 
its  truth;  the  divine  presentation  of  salvation  and  the  personal 
assurance  of  its  reality  by  inner  conscious  experience,  exhibits  the 
true  modus  operandi  in  this  matter.  In  this  way  is  faith  in  the 
living  personal  God,  in  this  way  is  the  true  idea  of  the  divine 
personality  or  a  true  Theism,  possible.  The  true  idea  of  God 
and  the  world  is  inseparable  from  the  specific  experience  of 
Christian,  saving  faith.  There  is,  consequently,  great  signifi- 
cance in  the  Lutheran  idea  which  insists  so  much  upon  the 
specific  means  of  grace,  and  upon  the  power  of  the  revealed 
Word  as  the  exhibition  of  the  objective  revelation  of  the  per- 
sonal presence  of  the  living  God.  This  appreciation  of  the 
importance  of  the  means  of  grace,  so  characteristic  of  Luther- 
anism,  we  should  most  heartily  cherish.  But  we  should  give 
equal  heed  to  the  other  phase  of  the  true  type  of  it,  namely, 
that  this  gospel  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation;  something 
not  merely  to  be  received  with  a  historical,  but  also  with  a 
living  faith;  something  which  is  life  as  well  as  truth;  something 
to  be  experienced,  and  of  the  certainty  of  which  we  can  have 
personal  assurance,  and  of  the  power  of  which  we  can  have 
conscious  experience.  Thus  will  we  have  personal  communion 
with  the  living  God,  and  a  satisfactory  idea  of  His  personal 
existence.  We  repeat  the  language  of  Luther:  "Although 
God  is  omnipresent.  He  is  nowhere;  I  cannot  lay  hold  upon 
Him  by  my  own  thoughts  without  the  Word.  But  where  He 
has  Himself  ordained  to  be  present,  there  He  is  certainly  to  be 
found."  "  The  majesty  of  God  is  too  exalted  and  grand  for  us 
to  be  able  to  grasp  it;  He,  therefore,  shows  us  the  right  way,  to 
wit,  Christ,  and  says :  '  Believe  in  Him,  and  you  will  find  out 
who  I  am,  and  what  are  My  nature  and  will'  " 


264  NECESSITY    OF   A   TRUE    CHRISTIAN    THEISM. 

§  9.   Cliristian  Theism  the  Satisfactory ,  and  the  only  Satisfactory 

World-view. 

The  idea  of  God,  as  the  hving  personal  God,  when  it  is  thus 
found,  commends  itself  to  the  highest  thoughts,  the  deepest 
feelings,  the  noblest  aspirations,  the  holiest  purposes  of  the  hu- 
man soul.  It  gives  man  a  true  interest  in  His  existence,  a  true 
enthusiasm  and  hope.  It  makes  all  sacred,  the  body  as  well  as 
the  soul ;  the  material  as  well  as  the  spiritual  world.  It  appre- 
hends the  true  nature  of  the  universe  of  finite  being,  of  man,  of 
nature,  and  of  spirit ;  neither  making  the  soul  a  sublimation  of 
matter,  nor  matter  a  precipitate  of  spirit ;  neither  regarding 
thought  a  secretion  from  the  brain  or  an  exhalation  of  "  the  fire- 
mist,"  nor  matter  a  petrifaction  or  crystallization  of  thought.  It 
represents  man  as  free,  yet  dependent ;  as  having  his  freedom 
assured  by  his  dependence  on  a  God  who  is  a  living,  personal 
power.  Freedom  and  dependence  have  their  perfect  unity  in 
this  idea.  The  believer  can  do  all  things  through  Christ ;  noth- 
ing without  Him.  Dependent  on  another,  but  that  other,  one 
with  whose  life  the  Christian's  life  is  so  connected  that  he  would 
not  desire  to  be  if  He  were  not,  would  not  desire  to  live  without 
Him;  so  dependent  on  God  that  he  is  perfectly  independent 
of  everything  else.  Thus  in  the  Christian  idea  we  see 
the  freedom  of  man  secured  by  his  very  dependence  on  God ; 
see  how  he  is  finite,  yet  for  the  infinite,  and  destined  for  a 
personal  immortality.  Thus  does  true  Christian  Theism  be- 
come a  necessity  of  human  faith,  as  much  as  a  dictate  of  divine 
revelation.  So  strong  and  impressive  is  it,  that  it  is  felt  to  be 
more  rational  as  well  as  more  satisfactory  than  Deism  or  Pan- 
theism. It  has,  indeed,  its  difficulties,  its  insoluble  problems  for 
the  understanding,  but  it  prefers  the  mystery  which,  while  it  is 
consistent  with  all  the  dictates  of  the  reason  and  the  facts  of  the 
experience  of  life,  is  demanded  by  conscience  and  faith,  to  the 
explanation  which  conflicts  with  the  very  foundations  of  moral- 
ity and  religion,  and  yet  affords  no  solution  of  the  questions  of 
existence  and  life  and  destiny.  The  divine  nature  is,  in  any 
possible  view  we  may  take  of  it,  unfathomable ;  but  the  idea 
which  the  Christian  faith  gives  is,  at  least,  full  of  satisfaction  and 
peace,  enthusiasm  and  hope.  If  we  only  know  Him  in  part 
through  faith,  we  are  yet  by  that  faith  made  content  with  His 


THE   ONLY   SOURCE    OF    TRUE    SATISFACTION.  265 

incomprehensibility,  and  filled  with  adoration  of  the  awful  but 
blessed  mystery  of  His  being.  The  Christian  idea  of  God  and 
the  world  commends  itself  to  the  acceptance  of  all  sincere  in- 
quirers for  some  solid  comfort  amid  the  troubles  of  life  and  the 
terrors  of  death,  for  the  spiritual  and  everlasting  good,  which 
can  savingly  meet  the  infinite  dissatisfaction  in  which  our  own 
existence  and  that  of  the  universe  leaves  us,  when  we  are  with- 
out a  personal  power  to  trust  and  a  personal  immortality  to  ex- 
pect. "  Whatsoever  things  were  written  aforetime  were,"  thus, 
indeed,  most  emphatically,  "  written  for  our  learning,  that  we 
through  patience  and  comfort  of  the  Scriptures  might  have  hope" 
— hope,  which  confirms  the  natural  sense  and  yearning  of  the 
soul,  and  which  in  the  language  of  the  poet  exclaims  : 

"  This  partial  view  of  human-kind 

Is  surely  not  the  best ! 
The  poor,  oppressed,  honest  man 

Had  never,  sure,  been  born, 
Had  there  not  been  a  recompense 

To  comfort  those  that  mourn '' 


DIVISION  II. 

THE  APPLICATION  OF  THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA    OF  THE  RELATION   OP 

MAN   TO    GOD— OF  FAITH  AND    RELIGION— IN  THE  LIGHT  OF 

THE   PRINCIPLE   OF  THE  REFORMATION. 

The  Christian  idea  of  the  nature  of  faith  and  religion,  as  de- 
rived from  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  would  regard  all 
true  religion  as  revealed — revealed  either  by  general  or  by  special 
divine  influence.  This  results  necessarily  from  the  personal  re- 
lations which  are  involved  in  it.  According  to  this  principle 
man's  normal  condition  is  a  state  of  communion  with  God.  He 
is  made  for  God  and  eternity.  Being  not  a  nature-object,  but  a 
personal  spirit,  he  needs  God  from  the  very  constitution  of  his 
being.  God  is  the  source  of  all  good — of  all  light,  as  well  as  of 
all  life.  He  is  not  only  the  sovereign  good  of  the  soul ;  but 
He  is  the  way  to  the  supreme  good ;  He  is  not  only  the  ground 
and  end,  not  only  the  Creator  of  man,  but  the  guide  to  the  end 
of  his  being.  The  consummation,  as  well  as  the  origination  of 
human  existence,  is  in  God.  God  is  both  Creator  of  the  creature 
and  Reconciler  of  the  free  being  His  hand  has  made.  Man 
has  receptivity  for  the  good,  but  not  productivity  for  the  origin- 
ation of  it ;  he  has  capacity  for  God,  but  he  can  receive  Him 
only  as  He  gives  Himself;  can  know  Him  only  as  He  reveals 
Himself  In  reference  to  the  modern  division,  derived  from  the 
source  of  our  knowledge  of  God,  it  would  lead  us  to  apprehend 
the  so-called  natural  religion,  not  as  knowledge  of  God  and  our 
relations  to  Him  derived  exclusively  from  nature  and  reason, 
and  demonstrated  by  the  logical  understanding,  but  as  knowl- 
edge given  to  all  men  by  general  revelation,  by  manifestations 
which  God  has  made  of  Himself  to  their  consciences  through 
nature  internal  and  external,  in  their  inner  constitution  and  the 
outer  world,  in  their  personal  experience  and  in  the  general 
movements  of  His  providence,  and  by  remains  of  revealed 
religion,  of  a  special  revelation,  a  supernatural  and  superhuman 
communication  of  divine  knowledge,  of  His  character  and  rela- 
tions to  man  by  miraculous  acts,  in  a  special  history  within  the 

(266) 


THE    KNOWLEDGE    OF    GOD    AND    REVELATION.  26/ 

general  history  of  His  providence,  a  sacred  within  the  profane 
or  secular  history  of  man,  impressions  of  which  originally 
reached  the  whole  human  family.  It  would  have  us  regard  no 
religious  truths  as  having  their  source  entirely  in  nature  and 
reason ;  nor  would  it  have  us  think  of  man  as  having  ever  been 
entirely  without  revelation,  or  as  being  able  without  the  aid  of 
revelation,  by  his  own  understanding,  to  have  discovered  any 
religious  truth,  to  have  power  from  himself  to  know  the  real 
nature  of  God,  and  the  true  character  of  His  worship.  It  would 
have  us  regard  all  true  knowledge  of  God  as  derived  from 
divine  revelation,  either  general  or  special,  and  to  look  upon 
God  as  not  only  creating  man,  but  revealing  Himself  to  him ; 
so  that  man  was  never  left  entirely  to  himself,  but  was  always 
the  subject  of  divine  revelation ;  "  Because  that  which  may  be 
known  of  God  is  manifest  in  thcvi,  for  God  hath  showed  it  itnto 
them.  For  the  invisible  things  of  Him  from  the  creation  of  the 
world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  tilings  that  are 
made,  even  His  eternal  power  and  Godhead ;  so  that  they  are 
without  excuse :  because  that,  when  they  knew  God,  they  glori- 
fied Him  not  as  God,  neither  were  thankful;  but  became  vain 
in  their  imaginations,  and  their  foolish  hearts  were  darkened. 
Professing  to  be  wise,  they  became  fools,  and  changed  the  glory 
of  the  incorruptible  God  into  an  image  like  unto  corruptible 
man,  and  to  birds,  and  four-footed  beasts,  and  creeping  things. 
Wherefore  God  also  gave  them  up  to  uncleanness,  through  the 
lusts  of  their  own  hearts,  to  dishonor  their  bodies  between  them- 
selves ;  who  changed  the  truth  of  God  into  a  lie,  and  ivorshiped  and 
served  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator,  who  is  blessed  forever, 
amen."  And  though  in  times  past  "  He  suffered  all  nations  to 
walk  in  their  own  ways  ;  nevertheless  he  left  not  Himself  zuith- 
oiit  zvitness,  in  that  He  did  good,  and  gave  us  rain  from  heaven, 
filling  our  hearts  with  food  and  gladness."  A  natural  religion, 
therefore,  in  the  sense  of  a  religion  discovered  by  man  inde- 
pendently of  divine  revelation,  it  would  reject.  And  in  the  two 
sources  of  the  knowledge  of  God  recognized  by  the  earlier  the- 
ologians, it  would  regard  the  first, — the  cognitio  dei  naturalis, 
the  knowledge  derived  partly  from  immediate  consciousness 
(notitia  Dei  insita)  and  partly,  by  the  medium  of  reason,  or  the 
thinking  mind,  in  the  way  of  proofs  of  the  being  of  God  (notitia 
Dei  acquisita), — not  as  natural  in  the  sense  of  independence  of 


268  APPLICATION    TO    THE    SOURCE    OF    FAITH. 

divine  revelation ;  but  it  would  regard  the  immediate  conscious- 
ness, or  faith  as  the  result  of  general  revelation,  of  divine  im- 
pressions or  acts  of  communication  involved  in  the  immediate 
relation  of  man  to  God,  in  his  being  created  for  God  and  in  a 
state  of  communion  with  Him ;  a  consciousness,  consequently 
which,  though  immediate  in  the  sense  that  it  is  not  determined  by 
the  creature,  is  still  determined,  or  is  zvhat  it  is,  by  divine  impres- 
sions, by  acts  of  divine  revelation.  And  it  would  regard  the 
mediation  of  the  reason  or  the  thinking  mind,  not  as  discover- 
ing the  knowledge  of  God  or  proving  the  divine  existence,  but 
rather  as  analyzing  and  interpreting,  the  knowledge  which  is  in 
faith,  in  the  consciousness  of  God  produced  by  general  revela- 
tion. And  it  would  regard  the  second  source  of  knowledge, 
cognitio  dei  supernaturalis,  that  which  is  by  special  or  miracu- 
lous revelation,  as  above  reason,  though  not  contrary  to  it.  It 
would  regard  the  general  revelation  as  giving  the  realities  which 
are  not  only  in  accordance  with  reason,  but  are  demanded  by 
the  thinking  mind,  though  not  discovered  by  its  own  powers ; 
and  the  supernatural  revelation  as  disclosing  truths  and  facts 
which,  though  not  contrary  to  reason,  are  neither  required  nor 
discovered  by  the  thinking  mind,  in  its  own  unaided  operations. 
Thus,  while  reason  recognizes  as  a  necessary  idea  what  general 
revelation  gives  as  reality,  namely,  the  divine  existence  and  per 
fection ;  it  does  not  require  as  necessary  in  idea  what  special 
revelation  makes  known  as  reality,  though  it  was  morally  cer- 
tain— for  example.  Creation  and  Redemption.  It  can  see  that 
the  divine  existence  is  necessary  physically,  metaphysically, 
logically  ;  but  not  that  the  creation  of  the  world  was  necessary 
either  physically,  metaphysically,  or  logically.  Special  revela- 
tion alone  can  make  known  acts  of  the  divine  will,  which  tran- 
scend the  laws  of  nature ;  it  alone  can  reveal  facts  of  the  divine 
interposition  in  behalf  of  sinful  creatures  ;  and,  consequently,  it 
alone  is  the  divine  communication,  which  is,  in  the  end,  entirely 
satisfactory  to  reason,  and  fully  sufficient  for  the  practical  wants 
of  man. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE    TRUE  MEDIUM  OF    RELIGION    IN    ITS  ORIGIN    AND  END,  OR  THE 
NATURE    OF    RELIGIOUS    FAITH. 

Religion  is  man's  relation  to  God;  its  root  is  faith;  its  end, 
communion  with  God.  As  natural  faith  is  the  source  of  the 
sound  and  healthy  activities  of  natural  life,  so  religious  faith  is 
that  of  those  of  the  religious  life.  According  to  the  principles 
of  the  Reformation,  faith  is  the  instrumental  cause  in  the  origin- 
ation of  true  religion,  and  in  the  attainment  of  its  end.  Where 
there  is  no  faith,  there  can  be  no  true  religion.  In  it  is  the 
point  of  union  and  communion  between  God  and  man. 

§  I.  The  Nature  of  Religious  Faith  in  General. 
Faith  in  general,  as  religious  faith,  is  knowledge  of  God 
springing  from  the  nature  of  the  human  spirit,  in  its  vital  rela- 
tions to  Him,  through  the  influence  of  general  revelation,  con- 
nected with  the  unconditional  surrender  of  himself  on  the  part 
of  man.  In  the  Old  Testament,  consequently,  it  is  strikingly 
expressed  by  a  word  which  means  both  to  be  firm  and  to  make 
firm,  to  support  and  to  rely  upon  something;  to  trust,  and  to  be 
trusted ;  to  confide  in  and  to  submit  to.  "  If  ye  do  not  believe 
Me,  ye  shall  not  be  established"  (Isaiah  vii.  9).  In  the  original 
the  same  word,  in  different  forms,  is  here  used  in  the  two 
clauses  of  this  sentence  ;  in  the  first,  to  express  trust ;  in  the 
second,  support.  In  like  manner  in  the  New  Testament,  the 
same  word  is  used  to  designate  one  who  trusts,  and  one  who  is 
trusted.  Faith  is  described  in  the  Scriptures,  therefore,  as  a 
confident  persuasion  of  the  reality,  and  a  spiritual  apprehension, 
through  divine  revelation  of  the  nature  of  things  lying  beyond 
the  present  and  above  the  visible  world;  as  "the  substance," 
the  hypostasis,  the  substratum,  the  realization,  "of  things  hoped 
for,  and  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen"  (Heb.  xi.  i).  Thus 
true  faith  involves  both  knowledge  and  feeling ;  it  embraces  an 
act  of  the  intellect  and  a  movement  of  the  susceptibility.  But 
it  is  also  connected  with  an  act  of  submission  to  God — which  is 

(269) 


270  MEDIUM    OF    RELIGION    IN    ITS    ORIGIN    AND    END. 

manifestly  an  act  of  the  will.  Therefore,  knowing,  feeling  and 
willing,  onerate  together  in  faith.  It  has  its  existence  exclu- 
sively  in  none  of  them  ;  nor  is  it  compounded  of  them.  But  it 
involves  all  of  them.  It  is  the  consciousness  of  God  which  is 
inseparable  from  true  self-consciousness — from  the  contact  of 
the  divine  and  the  human  in  man's  fundamental  relation  and 
normal  condition.  It  is  potentially  or  actually  present  in  all 
men — potentially  in  the  restlessness  of  the  spirit  without  Christ, 
and  actually  present  in  the  repose  of  the  Christian  believer. 
"  Thou  hast  made  us  for  Thyself,"  says  Augustine,  "  and  our 
heart  is  restless  until  it  rest  in  Thee."  It  is  not  mere  opinion, 
separate  from  all  experience,  not  a  mere  judgment,  in  which 
the  subject  is  conscious  of  the  uncertainty  of  his  conclusion,  of 
the  possibility  of  mistake ;  but  a  confident  persuasion  of  the 
truth  of  the  thing  believed.  It  is  not  mere  knowledge;  not 
merely  the  cognition  of  some  object ;  it  transcends  all  mere 
intellections,  and  includes  elements  other  than  knowledge, 
namely,  feeling  and  volition.  It  is  not  the  product  of  mere 
reasoning  in  the  understanding ;  it  is  only  in  some  instances 
confirmed  by  logical  thought;  and  it  is  independent  for  its 
origination  of  all  mere  intellectual  processes.  Still  it  is  not  the 
result  merely  of  the  yearnings  and  premonitions  of  the  soul, 
but  is  an  intelligent  state  of  mind.  It  rests  not  merely  upon 
mystical  and  blind  feeling;  for,  though  it  involves  mystery,  yet 
it  is  based  upon  grounds  sufificiently  assured,  and  possesses 
reasons  clearly  ascertained. 

§  2.  Some  of  its  Distinctions  from  Other  Religious  Phenomena. 

It  is,  thus,  distinguished  from  non-belief — the  state  of  those 
who  have  not  had  reasons  of  faith  presented  to  them  ;  and  from 
nnbelief — the  absence  of  faith  in  the  presence  of,  and  in  spite  of, 
sufficient  reasons  for  belief  It  may  be  consistent  with  a 
heterodoxy  which,  while  it  rejects  particular  doctrines  or  forms 
of  religion,  still  clings  to  its  fundamentals,  and  is  animated  by 
its  spirit.  But  it  utterly  excludes  a  heresy  which,  while  it 
assumes  the  name,  denies  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  and  is 
destructive  of  its  essence  and  life.  It  is  to  be  distinguished  from 
all  those  superstitious  tendencies  in  which  men  believe  in  the 
supersensuous  world  and  its  connection  with  nature  and  man,  in 
a  manner  contrary  to  the  laws  of  mind,  and  unauthorized  by  the 


TRUE    AND    FALSE   ENTHUSIASM    AND    THEOSOPHY.  27 1 

Bible.  It  is  opposed  to  all  those  fanatical  impulses  which  lead 
men  so  to  over-estimate  certain  objects  as  to  strive  for  the 
attainment  of  them,  irrespective  of  the  propriety  of  the  means 
employed — to  violate  the  rights  of  property  and  life  in  their 
effort  to  gain  their  supposed  good  ends.  So  it  is  antagonistic  to 
the  disposition  which  fosters  intolerance — the  spirit  in  which 
men  labor  for  the  predominance  of  one  religion  or  form  or 
doctrine  of  religion  over  others,  by  means  other  than  moral 
power  and  influence,  by  other  than  spiritual  weapons.  Faith  is 
confidence  in  truth  ;  it  trusts  in  truth,  and  in  nothing  else.  It 
comes  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  truth — of  the  Word — 
and  it  will  consent  to  the  wielding  of  no  weapon  but  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Gospel. 

§  3.  Its  Relation  to  Enthusiasm  and  Theosophy, 

There  is  a  false  enthusiasm — a  phenomenon  closely  akin  to 
fanaticism  ;  the  former  is  more  an  error  of  the  head,  the  latter 
more  a  delusion  of  the  heart ;  the  one  is  more  calculating,  the 
other  more  swayed  by  passionate  feeling;  the  one  following 
false  judgments,  the  other  blind  impulses  and  delusive  feelings. 
Such  a  state  of  mind  has  nothing  in  common  with  true  religious 
faith.  True  faith  is  full  of  sound  knowledge  and  of  deep 
repose. 

But  there  is  a  sense  of  the  word  enthusiasm  in  which  it  ex- 
presses an  element  of  all  true  faith,  namely,  when  it  means  the  ex- 
citement which  results  from  reflection  upon  great  truths.  Then 
it  is  the  true  and  natural  manifestation  of  a  true  and  living  faith. 
This  is  a  characteristic  of  faith  in  all  great  realities.  Such  an 
enthusiastic  faith  may  exist  in  reference  to  anything  which  can 
be  a  subject  of  feeling,  and,  consequently,  in  religion.  Such  is 
the  enthusiasm  expressed  in  the  language  of  Paul :  ."  Whether  I 
be  beside  myself  it  is  to  God,  or  whether  I  be  sober  it  is  for  your 
cause;  for  the  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us;  for  we  thus  judge 
that  if  Christ  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead,  and  that  He  died 
for  all,  that  they  which  live  should  henceforth  live  not  to  them- 
selves, but  to  Him  that  died  for  them  and  rose  again."  This  is 
an  enthusiasm  perfectly  consistent  with  the  highest  intelligence 
and  the  deepest  repose  of  the  Christian  faith. 

There  is  a  peeuliar  form  of  enthusiasm  which  may  be  called 
Theosophy.     This  word  is  used,  in  a  good  as  well  as  in  a  bad 


2/2  MEDIUM    OF    RELIGION    IN    ITS    ORIGIN    AND    END. 

sense ;  in  the  one  indicating  what  is  perfectly  consistent,  in  the 
other  what  is  utterly  inconsistent,  with  sound  faith  and  true 
theology.  In  the  latter  it  designates  that  delusion  of  men  in 
which  they  believe  that  they  can  come  into  an  immediate 
knowledge  of  God  and  the  spirit-world,  and  into  direct  com- 
munion with  supernatural  beings,  by  means  other  than  those 
afiforded  and  sanctioned  by  divine  revelation.  At  the  same  time 
it  is  the  doctrine  of  the  particular  means  by  which  this  is  pro- 
posed to  be  effected ;  such  as  the  visions  induced  by  fixing  the 
eye  steadily  upon  the  epigastrium,  practiced  anciently  by  some 
of  the  enthusiastic  monks ;  such  as  the  manipulations  of  animal 
magnetism,  and  the  operations  of  the  so-called  spiritual  mediums 
of  modern  times.  Such  theosophy  differs,  therefore,  from  true 
theology,  which  is  the  science  of  faith,  in  many  ways.  The  lat- 
ter uses  only  those  means  of  the  knowledge  of  the  supernatural 
which  God  has  afforded  to  all  by  general  or  special  revelation ; 
the  former  seeks  a  peculiar  knowledge  of  the  supernatural,  and 
believes  itself  to  have  attained  it  by  particular  means  known 
only  to  some,  or  by  capacities  possessed  only  by  a  kw  individ- 
uals. The  latter  has  reference,  indeed,  to  a  mystical,  but,  at  the 
same  time,  to  a  moral  connection  of  men  with  the  superhuman, 
and  aims  at  the  production  of  a  holy  life ;  while  the  former 
has  merely  a  speculative  interest,  or  if  a  practical,  aims  mainly 
at  material  or  temporal  benefits.  But  in  the  former,  or  good 
sense,  the  word  designates  the  cultivation  of  that  higher  knowl- 
edge of  religion  which  results  from  the  susceptibility  for  relig- 
ion as  an  original  and  independent  element  of  human  nature  ; 
and  to  the  discussion  of  that  cognitive  element  of  religious 
faith,  of  the  Christian  faith,  which  is  peculiar  to  the  regenerate 
— in  short,  the  theology  of  the  regenerate  in  the  strict  sense  ;  to 
the  testimony  of  the  spirit  enlightening  and  strengthening  the 
cognitive  faculties,  as  well  as  confirming  and  assuring  the  feel- 
ings of  the  heart.  Such  knowledge  is  certainly  indicated  in  the 
Sacred  Scriptures  by  such  passages  as  these:  "If  any  man  will 
do  the  will  of  My  Father  in  heaven,  he  shall  know  of  this  doc- 
trine, whether  it  be  of  God ;"  where  obedience  to  conscience  in 
relation  to  God  is  recognized  as  the  occasion,  or,  at  least,  as  a 
capacity  for  Christian  knowledge.  Or  such  texts  as  the  follow- 
ing :  "  That  ye  might  be  rooted  and  grounded  in  love,  and  be 
able   to    comprehend   with    all    saints    what   is   the   length   and 


TRUE   AND    FALSE    MYSTICISM.  2/3 

breadth  and  height  and  depth,  and  know  the  love  of  Christ 
which  passeth  all  knowledge,  and  be  filled  with  all  the  fullness 
of  God."  "  Ye  have  an  unction  from  on  high  and  know  all 
things."  "  He  that  lov^eth  knoweth  God."  "  He  that  is  spiritual 
judgeth  all  things."  Such  passages  indicate,  on  the  one  hand, 
that  the  religious  nature  of  man  is,  in  its  coimection  with  the 
divine  spirit,  though  not  a  source  or  element  of  knowledge,  yet, 
at  least,  a  peculiar  organ  for  the  reception  and  reproduction  of 
the  great  truths  of  revelation  ;'  or  that  God  manifests  Himself 
to  man  in  that  relation  which  He  necessarily  sustains  to  him, 
in  a  special  manner,  when  the  creature  specially  yields  himself 
to  the  divine  impulse  ;  that  as  God  is  a  living,  personal,  active 
being,  He  cannot  but  impress  Himself  upon  the  religious  sus- 
ceptibility of  man,  and  appropriate  it  as  His  organ,  in  propor- 
tion to  its  holy  aspirations  after  divine  truth  ;  and,  on  the  other, 
that  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  is  not  only  testimony  borne  to  the 
feelings,  but  also  to  the  cognitions ;  not  only  to  the  susceptibility, 
but  also  to  the  intellect  of  the  human  mind.  Such  theosophy 
Luther  inculcates,  and  the  principle  of  the  Reformation  requires. 
In  this  sense  the  word  Theosophy  has,  of  late,  come  to  be  used 
to  designate  highly  speculative  and  deeply  spiritual  discussions 
of  divine  truth.  And  theologians  distinguished  for  great  specu- 
lative capacity,  deep  spirituality,  and  special  devotion  to  those 
aspects  of  divine  truth  which  are  of  a  highly  speculative  and  at 
the  same  time  of  a  deeply  spiritual  character — aspects  realized 
in  experimental  Christianity,  and  brought  gradually  to  specula- 
tive apprehension  in  the  Christian  idea  or  philosophy  which 
results  from  it — the  theologians  distinguished  for  attainments  of 
this  kind,  are  sometimes  called  theosophists  ;  such  as  Oetinger, 
Hamann,  Rothe,and  we  might  add,  Auberlen  and  Martensen. 

§  4.  Distinguished  from  False  Mysticism. 

True  religious  faith  is  also  to  be  distinguished  from  an  impure 
mystical  faith.  This  word  mysticism  is  also  used  in  a  good  and 
in  a  bad  sense.  The  Pietists  distinguished  in  this  respect 
between  different  classes  of  mystics,  calling  the  one  mystici 
puri,  the  other  mystici  mixti ;  and  the  German  theologians  now 
use  the  German  word  mysticismus  to  designate  the  false,  and 
their  word  mystik  they  limit  to  the  true  mysticism.  The  latter 
is  belief  in  a  continuous  operation  of  God  upon  the  human  soul, 
18 


274  MEDIUM    OF    RELIGION    IN    ITS    ORIGIN    AND    END. 

which  is  entirely  independent  of,  and  separate  from,  all  means 
of  grace  ;  independent  even  of  the  special  revelation  of  God's 
operations  as  recorded  in  the  Bible,  and  separate  from  the 
immediate  operations  of  the  Spirit  as  connected  with  the  inspired 
historical  revelation — an  influence  which  is  to  be  attained  by 
particular  religious  exercises  other  than  those  inculcated  in  the 
Sacred  Scriptures,  such  as  contemplation,  asceticism,  etc. — an 
inner  light  which  can  dispense  with  the  miraculous  divine 
revelation  of  Christianity. 

§  5.   Tlie  True  Mysticism  of  Faith. 

But  there  is  a  true  Christian  mysticism,  a  true  mystical 
element,  in  the  Christian  faith.  This  is  manifest  in  the  writings, 
especially  of  the  Apostle  John  among  the  inspired  men  of  the 
Bible,  and  in  the  works  of  such  men  as  Suso,  Ruysbroek, 
Thomas  a  Kempis,  Tauler,  Luther,  Arndt,  Spener,  among  un- 
inspired theologians.  Luther  of  all  the  reformers  had  most  of 
this  element ;  and  he  declares  that  he  had  nowhere  found  a 
sounder  or  more  evangelical  theology  than  in  the  sermons  of 
the  mystic  Tauler.  So  deeply  did  he  feel  the  truth  and  power 
of  this  true  mystical  element  in  Christianity,  that  the  first 
religious  book  which  he  published  was  an  edition  of  "  Die 
Deutsche  Theologie,"  Theologia  Teutonica,  the  greatest  produc- 
tion of  the  mystical  theology  of  the  Middle  Ages  ;  and  in  the 
introduction  to  it  he  declares  it  to  be,  next  to  the  Bible,  the  best 
guide  in  the  way  of  life  and  salvation.  It  is  worthy  of  remark 
that  Arndt  republished  the  same  work  with  a  preface  full  of 
approbation  of  the  true  mystical  spirit,  and  that  Spener  began 
his  work  by  republishing  Arndt's  discourse  with  the  same 
feeling.  He  declares  that  Luther  was  so  imbued  with  this 
theology,  had  so  imbibed  its  spirit  and  appropriated  its  language, 
that  it  is  often  difficult  to  know  when  his  words  are  original  or 
borrowed  from  his  favorite  mystical  writers.  It  was  the  union 
of  the  true  mystical  spirit  with  the  light  and  authority  of  the 
Sacred  Scriptures,  as  contradistinguished  from  mere  intellectual- 
ism,  which  gave  these  men  such  remarkable  power  in  the 
theological  as  well  as  in  the  religious  world.  In  short,  such  a 
mysticism  as  Luther,  Arndt  and  Spener  exhibited  has  generally 
been  recognized  by  all  truly  evangelical  Christians  as  insepara- 
ble from  true  Christian  doctrine  and  faith.     It  is  an  element  of 


PARTIAL   AND    DEFECTIVE   APPREHENSION.  2/5 

saving  faith,  of  true  Christian  experience,  and  of  the  source  of 
true  Christian  science.  Indeed,  a  return  to  the  union  which 
Luther  effected  between  the  inner  spirit  of  mysticism  and  the 
objective  light  and  authority  of  the  Sacied  Scriptures,  is  most 
desirable. 

§  6.  All  One-sidedness  in  Faith  Must  be  Avoided. 

Some  have  made  faith  rest  upon  mere  intellectual  cognitions. 
This,  whether  it  is  done  by  the  Supernaturalists  or  the  Ration- 
alists, the  orthodox  or  the  heterodox — and  both  parties  have 
been  guilty  of  it — must  be  regarded  as  a  one-sided  intellectual- 
ism,  or  doctrinalism.  Some  have  made  feeling  the  sole  element 
or  source  of  faith.  This  may  be  pronounced  a  one-sided 
emotionalism.  That  definition  which  makes  the  will  the  sole 
element  or  source  of  faith  may  be  called  a  one-sided  tnoralism 
or  legalism;  and  that  which  makes  the  conscience  the  only 
element  or  source  of  it,  a  one-sided  conscientialism.  Faith 
involves  all  the  faculties,  embraces  the  whole  man.  It  has  an 
object,  and,  consequently,  it  has  a  cognitive  element ;  it  approves 
that  object,  and,  consequently,  it  has  an  emotional  element ;  it 
assents  to  that  object,  surrenders  itself  to  it,  and,  consequently, 
it  must  have  a  volitional  and  active  element.  "  The  several 
factors  of  which  religion  is  composed  limit  and  sustain  one 
another.  Profundity  of  feeling  depends  upon  the  will,  and 
energy  of  will  on  the  depth  of  emotion  ;  these  have  all  their 
central  point  of  union  in  faith.  Faith  is  life  of  feeling  ;  but  it  is 
also  intelligent  life — knows  what  it  believes,  knows  sacred  truths 
in  the  light  of  its  own  intuitions  ;  and,  though  its  knowledge  is 
not  comprehensive,  like  that  of  demonstrative  science ;  though 
its  intuitions  are  not  a  seeing  face  to  face,  like  those  of  the 
sense ;  though  inferior  in  these  forms  of  apprehension,  yet  it 
yields  to  none  of  them  in  point  of  certitude,  for  the  very  essence 
of  it  is  that  it  is  firm,  confident  certitude  respecting  what  is  not 
seen.  Finally,  it  is  the  profoundest  act  of  the  will,  of  obedience 
and  devotion,  and,  therefore,  necessarily  passes  over  into  action." 
We  may  distinguish  these  elements  as  did  Spener  when  he  said, 
Love  is  an  essential,  though  not  a  justifying,  element  of  saving 
faith.  Against  mere  Intellectualism,  we  must  maintain  the 
sentient  and  the  active  elements ;  against  mere  Emotionalism, 
the  cognitive  and  the  active  ;  against  mere   Moralism  or  Legal- 


2/6  MEDIUM    OF    RELIGION    IN    ITS    ORIGIN    AND    END. 

ism,  the  cognitive  and  sentient  elements;  against  the  idea  of  the 
older  Rationalism,  that  it  is  more  than  mere  knowledge ;  and 
against  Schleiermacherian  Mysticism,  that  it  is  more  than  mere 
feeling.  We  must  equally  maintain  the  necessity  of  correct 
views,  of  actual  experience,  and  of  obedient  action,  as  all  three 
together  are  necessarily  involved  in  true  faith. 


CHAPTER     II. 

THE    NATURE    OF    RELIGION. 

§  I.  Different  Designations  of  Religion. 

Faith  is  the  root  of  religion,  and  the  instrumental  cause  of  its 
results.  All  the  phenomena  designated  by  this  term  are 
manifestations  of  faith.  The  word  religio,  which  was  originally 
used  by  the  heathen  to  express  the  relation  of  man  to  God,  is 
derived  by  Cicero  from  relegere,  to  reflect,  meaning  seriousness 
as  distinguished  from  levity,  earnestness  as  distinguished  from 
frivolity  in  things  pertaining  to  this  relation  ;  and  those  who 
were  thus  characterized  in  their  relation  to  the  supernatural 
were  called  religiosi.  On  the  contrary,  Lactantius,  who,  on 
account  of  the  elegance  of  his  Latin,  was  called  the  Christian 
Cicero,  derives  it  from  religare,  to  bind  back,  in  the  sense  of  the 
tie  that  binds  us  to  God.  Now,  whatever  may  be  the  compara- 
tive merits  of  these  different  derivations,  it  is  certain  that  the 
sense  in  which  Lactantius  takes  the  word  is  the  one  required  by 
the  Christian  idea  of  religion.  It  was  a  dogmatic  interest  more 
than  philological  considerations  which,  in  all  probability,  either 
consciously  or  unconsciously  influenced  Lactantius ;  it  was  the 
Christian  idea  which  modified  the  meaning  of  the  term,  and 
made  it  more  expressive  of  true  religion,  of  religion  in  the 
Christian  sense  as  distinguished  from  that  of  the  heathen  ;  it 
was  an  instance  of  the  gradual  development  and  of  the  increasing 
force  of  the  Christian  idea — of  the  formation  of  a  Christian 
philosophy.  It  has  greatly  modified  the  language  of  the  old 
heathen  Romans,  and  given  to  many  Latin  words  a  pregnancy 
of  meaning  which  they  had  not  before.  But  the  heathen  mean- 
ing of  the  word  has  still  clung  more  or  less  to  the  idea  of 
religion,  in  the  theology  of  the  Church,  especially  among 
Roman  Catholics ;  hence,  the  distinction  of  the  clergy  and  the 
laity,  the  former  as  especially  the  religious,  and  the  designation 
of  their  orders,  such  as  priests,  monks,  nuns,  etc.,  as  the 
religiosi. 

(277) 


2/8  THE  NATURE  OF  RELIGION. 

The  Sacred  Scriptures  do  not  use  any  one  word  specifically 
and  exclusively  to  designate  all  the  phenomena  of  religious  faith. 
They  employ  a  variety  of  words  and  use  different  phrases  to 
express  the  manifestations  of  the  relation  of  man  to  God,  which 
is  meant  by  the  common  acceptation  of  the  word  religion. 
Thus,  objectively,  such  terms  as  service,  worship,  the  way,  the 
way  of  the  Lord,  the  law,  the  grace  of  God,  the  gospel,  the 
faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints  ;  and,  subjectively,  the  fear  of 
the  Lord,  the  knowledge  of  God,  the  love  of  God,  the  life  of 
God  in  the  soul,  etc. 

§  2.  Divisions  and  Definition  of  Religion  in  the  Empirical  Appre- 
hension of  it. 

When  religion  is  made  the  subject  of  mere  intellectual  appre- 
hension, it  may  be  empirically  or  speculatively  viewed.  In  the 
empirical  aspect,  religion  is  belief  in  the  existence  of  super- 
natural powers  as  having  an  influence  upon  the  natural  world 
and  upon  man,  and  which  are,  therefore,  to  be  feared  and 
worshiped.  In  this  sense  it  embraces  all  forms  of  religion, 
heathen  as  well  as  Christian  ;  and  among  Christians,  orthodox 
and  heterodox,  supernaturalistic  and  rationalistic.  It  is  faith 
viewed  irrespective  of  the  nature  or  number  of  the  object  or 
objects  of  worship.  It  is  a  thorough  conviction,  a  full  per- 
suasion of  the  existence  of  the  object  or  objects,  and  a  reverence 
for  the  divine  power  thus  apprehended.  From  the  number  of 
the  objects  of  faith,  it  may  be  Monotheistic,  Dualistic,  or  Poly- 
theistic ;  from  the  quality,  sensuous  or  supersensuous ;  the 
former,  such  as  idolatry  or  image-worship  in  so  far  as  images 
are  regarded  as  something  divine  in  themselves ;  the  latter,  the 
supersensuous,  such  as  Monotheism,  Dualism,  Polytheism.  In 
this  empirical  view  of  religion  it  has  been  defined :  Religio  est 
modus  Deiun  cognoscendi  et  colendi,  that  is,  the  mode  of 
knowing  and  worshiping  God. 

§  3.  Definitions  of  Religion  Derived  from  the  Speculative  Appre- 
hension of  it. 

When,  in  the  mere  intellectual  apprehension,  religion  is  spec- 
ulatively viewed,  it  will  be  defined  according  to  the  principle  and 
spirit  of  the  different  systems  of  philosophy.  The  disciples  of 
the  Cartesian  philosophy,  and  afterwards,  those  of  the  Leibnitz- 


.   DEFINITIONS    DERIVED    FROM    PHILOSOPHY.  279 

Wolfian  School — apprehending  the  being  of  God,  the  moral 
freedom  and  responsibility  of  man,  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
and  future  retribution  as  demonstrable  by  reason — made  religion 
consist  in  a  sense  of  the  dependence  of  the  world  upon  God, 
and  of  the  responsibility  and  immortal  destiny  of  man.  The 
idea  of  God,  the  soul,  freedom,  immortality  were  regarded  as 
the  religious  ideas,  and  religion  was  defined :  The  belief  in  the 
reality  of  the  objects  of  the  religious  ideas,  together  with  a  cor- 
responding state  of  heart  and  life. 

In  the  school  of  Kant,  which  bases  religion  altogether  upon 
the  moral  nature  of  man,  religion  is  the  recognition  of  the  cate- 
gorical imperative  as  a  divine  behest,  or  the  moral  laws  of  the 
practical  reason  as  divine  commands,  and  the  recognition  of 
virtue  as  the  agreement  of  the  finite  will  with  the  infinite  will — 
a  definition  which  resolves  religion  into  mere  morality. 

The  followers  of  Fichte,  who  resolved  the  idea  of  divinity 
into  that  of  the  moral  order  of  the  world,  defined  religion  as 
faith  in  the  final  triumph  of  all  that  is  good — a  view  which 
makes  religion  a  kind  of  hero-worship.  In  the  school  of  Schel- 
ling,  which  teaches  the  identity  of  subject  and  object — or  which 
resolves  the  subjective  and  the  objective  into  the  absolute  as  the 
indifference-point  of  nature  and  spirit — religion  is  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  absolute  in  the  various  forms  of  nature  and  art, 
accompanied  by  a  cheerful  surrender  of  our  conscious  existence 
to  the  absolute,  that  is,  it  is  the  union  of  the  finite  with  the  infi- 
nite, in  the  sense  that  God  comes  to  consciousness  in  the  mind 
of  man — a  theory  which  makes  religion  mainly  the  worship 
of  genius. 

The  Hegelians,  who  make  the  idea  the  only  reality,  and  all 
other  things,  whether  subjective  or  objective,  whether  spirit  or 
nature,  only  conditions  or  occasions  of  the  evolution  of  the 
idea,  only  transition-points  in  the  movement  of  thought,  only 
vessels  for  the  manifestation  of  the  idea, — religion  is  defined  to 
be  the  union  of  the  individual  with  the  absolute  process  of 
thought,  of  the  finite  with  the  infinite.  This  system,  recognizing 
the  absolute  in  the  metaphysical  idea,  finds  in  Christianity  the 
union  of  God  and  man.  It  regards  philosophy  as  raising  re- 
ligion out  of  the  inadequate  representations  of  the  sense  up  to 
the  adequate  form  of  the  idea,  out  of  its  mythical  forms  in  signs 
and  symbols  up  to  the  light  of  speculative  thought ;  and,  con- 


280  THE    NATURE    OF    RELIGION. 

sequently  as  absorbing  all  religion.  According  to  this  view  re- 
ligion is  only  a  lower  form  of  thought,  only  a  lower  stage  of 
rational  development — one  which  will  be  transcended  in  the 
progress  of  philosophy. 

In  the  schools  of  Theistic  philosophy — represented,  especially 
in  later  years,  by  such  men  as  the  younger  Fichte,  by  Weisse, 
Fischer,  Chalybaeus,  Ulrici,  etc.,  in  which  the  claims  of  personal 
being  in  the  strict  sense,  the  personality  of  God  and  the  per- 
sonal immortality  of  man,  are  fully  recognized,  and  the  religious 
spirit  as  it  is  represented  by  Christianity  is  maintained, — religion 
would  be  defined  as  the  acknowledgment  and  worship  of 
God  as  a  living,  personal  being,  and  the  expectation  of  a  con- 
scious personal  immortality,  together  with  the  cognition  of  the 
possibility  of  divine  revelation. 

Religion  is  sometimes  defined  exclusively  as  life  by  the 
emotional  theologians  in  the  school  of  Schleiermacher,  which 
makes  the  feelings  the  seat  of  religion,  and  defines  it  to  be  the 
feeling  of  absolute  dependence.  This  is  true,  if  it  be  connected 
with  the  Christian  idea  of  the  personality  of  God  and  of  the 
divine  life  in  the  soul  as  produced  by  the  truth  and  Spirit  of 
God. 

§  4.    TJie  Universality  and  Indestructibility  of  Religion. 

The  Christian  idea  requires  us  to  regard  religion  as  the  rela- 
tion of  man  to  God  —  the  fundamental,  inherent,  permanent 
relation  of  man — and,  consequently  as  universal  and  indestruc- 
tible. It  is  an  element  of  human  nature  which,  like  conscience, 
can  never  be  explained  away  by  science  ;  nor  can  it  be  absorbed 
by  science  as  a  lower  form  of  either  knowledge  or  feeling  or 
action.  Man's  receptivity  for  God — his  susceptibility  to  religion 
— is  innate,  and  as  God  has  never  failed  to  reveal  Himself,  never 
left  Himself  without  witness — man  is  never  without  religion  in 
some  degree  or  form.  Like  conscience,  it  is  not  a  faculty  or 
sense,  but  a  point  of  contact  between  God  and  man.  It' is  a 
universal  fact  of  human  life,  of  man's  existence  as  an  individual 
and  as  a  society.  In  every  individual  there  is  S7ibjectively,  and 
in  every  community  objectively,  the  element  of  religion.  This  is 
now  very  generally  acknowledged  even  by  the  opponents  of 
Christianity.  It  is  now  seen  that  religion  in  some  form  always 
has   existed   and  always  will   exist.     It  may  be  neglected  and 


CAN    NEVER    BE    DISSIPATED    BY    SCIENCE.  28 1 

practically  ignored ;  men  may  stupefy  themselves  into  habitual 
indifference  to  it,  but  they  can  never  destroy  its  existence. 
Even  Idealism  with  its  Pantheism,  and  Materialism  with  its 
Atheism,  are  now  seen  to  be  forms  of  religion.  And  even  ab- 
solute Nescience  which  denies  the  valid  being  of  the  knower 
and  the  known,  and  recognizes  only  the  knowing  as  real,  must 
yield  itself  to  "  the  theory  of  knowledge  "  as  its  God.  That  it 
has  always  and  everywhere  existed  is  now  acknowledged  as  an 
indisputable  fact. 

It  is,  therefore,  a  primitive  fact.  Its  universality  cannot  be 
explained  in  any  other  way.  If  it  were  produced  by  mere 
reasoning,  or  purely  by  intellectual  culture,  it  would  not  so 
universally  exist.  To  ascribe  it  to  any  kind  of  craft ;  state-craft, 
king-craft  or  priest-craft,  is  now  treated  by  the  greatest  thinkers 
of  all  proclivities  in  philosophy  as  an  absurdity.  It  cannot  be 
ascribed  to  accidental  operations  of  intellect  or  transient  emo- 
tions of  the  susceptibility — to  ideas  of  beauty  and  sublimity,  or 
to  feelings  of  overpowering  fear  or  hope,  pain  or  joy.  To 
ascribe  it  to  an  all-pervading  dread  and  terror  in  the  presence 
of  the  overwhelming  forces  of  nature,  to  a  constantly  perduring 
nervous  tremor,  is  equally  unreasonable,  for  it  leaves  the  source 
of  that  all-pervading  fear  and  of  that  constantly  perduring 
nervous  impression  unexplained.  Whence  the  susceptibility  to 
these  feelings  ?  Whence  the  attuning  of  the  nerves  for  this 
mental  agitation  ?  If  religion  were  merely  an  idea  or  a  feeling 
it  might  be  dissipated  as  a  lower  mental  phenomenon.  But  it  is 
also  volition;  it  is  personal;  it  involves  the  will  and  is  impressed 
by  will.  All  true  religion  is  revealed  religion,  and  all  religions 
have  in  them  an  element  of  revelation,  general  or  special  or 
both — an  element  that  is  historical — and  have,  thus,  an  element 
which  is  indestructible.  Mere  myths  are  the  embodiment  of 
ideas  and  feelings,  and  they  may  be  dissolved  by  the  clear  light 
of  science  ;  but  religion  is  a  fact  of  life ;  it  is  the  expression  of 
will  as  well  as  of  ideas  and  feelings.  Revelation  involves  his- 
tory, is  the  manifestation  of  will,  of  the  holy  will  of  God,  and, 
consequently,  can  never  be  dissipated  by  science  as  a  lower 
form  of  knowledge  or  feeling.  The  myth  is  human ;  religion, 
divine. 


282  THE    NATURE    OF    RELIGION. 

§  5.   TJie  Contents  of  Religion. 

Religion  is  not  mere  knowing,  nor  feeling,  nor  willing  ;  nor  is 
it  a  compound  of  all  these  together.  It  is  in  them  all,  and  yet 
it  is  independent  of  them  for  its  existence.  It  is  before  and  back 
of  thsse  exercises,  in  the  heart,  in  the  point  wJicnce  all  knowledge, 
feeling  and  volition  have  their  spring,  in  the  immediate  life  of  the 
spirit  in  its  relation  to  the  God  in  whom  it  lives  and  moves  and 
has  its  being — the  point  at  which  God  comes  in  contact  with 
the  souls  of  men  through  the  instrumentality  of  His  general  or 
His  special  revelation. 

It  is  not  mere  knowledge,  for  then  the  cultivated  would 
always  have  more  of  it  than  the  uncultivated ;  adults,  more  than 
children  ;  the  gospel  would  be  more  acceptable  to  "  the  wise  and 
prudent  than  to  babes  and  sucklings ;"  religion  would  decline 
or  flourish,  decay  or  grow,  in  proportion  to  the  diminution  or 
the  increase  of  the  powers  of  thought ;  sickness,  infancy,  and  old 
age  would  be  incapable  of  religion,  and  the  strong  and  scientific 
mind  would  necessarily  be  full  of  religious  sentiment  and  life. 
But  all  experience  contradicts  this. 

The  Christian  idea,  consequently,  forbids  us  to  make  the 
question  of  religious  doctrines  a  mere  question  of  the  intellect. 
For,  just  in  proportion  as  this  mere  intellectualism  is  fostered, 
will  religion  be  famished.  When  this  view  of  religion  prevails, 
different  evil  tendencies  will  result,  according  as  the  knowledge, 
in  which  religion  is  supposed  to  consist,  is  related  to  different 
capacities  and  processes  of  intellect.  If  it  be  mere  empirical, 
historical  knowledge,  it  will  merely  be  stored  away  in  the 
memory,  will  be  merely  memoriter  knowledge.  This,  in  con- 
nection with  the  other  elements  of  religion,  is  important,  and,  in 
some  degree,  necessary  to  the  growth  of  piety  in  the  individ- 
ual and  the  Church.  It  must  not  be  excluded  from  the 
theology  which  is  to  be  the  science  of  faith.  Religion,  we  have 
seen,  is  in  its  very  nature  historical ;  the  Christian  religion, 
especially,  rests  upon  facts  which  should  be  known  and  re- 
membered. But  when  it  is  not  kept  in  close  connection  with 
the  susceptibility  and  the  will ;  when  it  is  used  without  refer- 
ence to  the  heart ;  it  results  in  a  narrow,  cold,  dead  orthodoxy. 
When  this  apprehension  of  religion  as  mere  knowledge  is  ap- 
propriated by  the  mere  logical  understanding,  there  is,  indeed,  a 


NEITHER    MERE    KNOWLEDGE    NOR    ACTION.  283 

higher  intellectual  tendency;  but,  also,  a  deeper  evil.  It  elabo- 
rates the  truths  and  expounds  the  facts  of  revelation  according 
to  the  connections  of  thought.  This  process — not  to  be  con- 
founded with  the  operation  of  the  reason — this  process  of  the 
connecting  understanding — has  its  proper  place  in  religion,  as  a 
safeguard  against  wandering  fancies,  superstitious  feelings  and 
fanatical  movements.  But  its  function  is  merely  critical,  and  its 
results  are  purely  negative.  It  consists  in  divesting  truth  of  false 
accretions,  distinguishing  its  inner  spirit  from  its  sensuous  sym- 
bols, and  reducing  its  parts  to  a  scheme  of  systematic  thought. 
And  thus  applied  it  is  useful,  and,  in  some  respects,  indispensa- 
ble. But  when  not  kept  in  its  proper  province  and  limited  to 
its  appropriate  work,  it  produces  all  the  sad  results  of  an  unbe- 
lieving rationalism.  It  tends  to  the  substitution  of  science  for 
religion.  True  rational  (not  rationalistic)  operations,  on  the 
other  hand,  never  separate  the  intellect  from  other  capacities  of 
mind,  nor  knowledge  from  the  other  elements  of  religion  ;  they 
keep  the  truths  of  religion  in  connection  with  the  feelings  and 
volitions,  as  well  as  with  the  cognitions  of  the  soul ;  and  ex- 
pound Christian  experience  in  the  light  of  intuition  and  the 
Word  of  God ;  they  recognize  the  fact  that  philosophy  can 
neither  rightfully  ignore  the  influence  of  Christianity  upon  the 
human  mind,  nor  ever  be  successful  in  the  attempt  to  supersede 
or  absorb  religion. 

Nor  is  religion  mere  volition  or  action.  The  Christian  does, 
indeed,  recognize  an  active  element  in  Christian  experience. 
The  deep  sense  of  personality — of  the  personality  of  God  and 
of  man,  involved  in  the  principle  of  the  Reformation — requires 
the  idea  of  a  human  as  well  as  a  divine  activity  in  the  com- 
munion of  God  with  man  through  Christ.  It  requires  the  con- 
ception of  the  reciprocal  action  of  the  divine  will  and  the  human 
will.  It  requires  the  apprehension  of  divine  grace  as  not  sus- 
pending, but  arousing,  animating  and  strengthening  the  action 
of  the  human  soul.  It  implies  that  God  deals  with  man,  even 
in  regeneration,  not  as  with  "  a  block  or  stone,"  but  as  with  a 
personal  subject,  a  moral  agent,  a  free  spirit.  There  is  a  human 
activity  in  the  negative  repentance  preceding  saving  faith,  in  the 
positive  repentance  in  the  midst  of  saving  faith,  as  well  as  in  the 
work  of  sanctification  after  regeneration.  There  is  intense 
spiritual  movement  in  the  very  beginning  of  the  spiritual   life ; 


284  THE    NATURE    OF    RELIGION. 

and  as  all  faith  is  voluntary,  there  must  be,  at  least,  a  yielding 
act  in  that  change  itself.  We  agree  heartily  with  Wuttke  in 
rejecting  all  theories  which  would  separate  morality  and  religion, 
and  regard  them  as  capable  of  existing  without  each  other. 
After  rejecting  all  theories  of  this  kind,  he  speaks  of  the  best 
of  them  in  this  manner:  "  Religion  is  \}aQ first,  the  basis,  also  in 
point  of  time ;  while  morality  is  the  second,  the  sequence.  This 
is  the  most  usual,  also  the  ecclesiastical  view ;  and  as  applied  to 
Christian  morality  it  is  also  undoubtedly  correct,  since  here  the 
question  is  as  to  being  redeemed  from  a  supposed  immoral 
state ;  in  which  of  course  the  religious  back-ground  forms  the 
basis  of  the  renewal,  from  which,  as  a  starting-point,  the  moral 
will,  in  general,  must  rise  to  freedom.  When,  however,  the 
moral  life  does  not  presuppose  a  spiritual  regeneration,  then 
no  moment  of  the  religious  life  is  conceivable  in  which  it  does 
not  also  contain  in  itself  the  moral  element, — thus  absolutely 
precluding  the  idea  of  a  precedency  of  one  to  the  other ;  more- 
over, even  in  the  spiritual  regeneration  of  the  sinner,  the  process 
of  being  morally  laid  hold  upon  by  the  sanctifying  Spirit  of 
God,  issues  directly  into  a  willing,  and  hence  moral,  laying  hold 
upon  the  offered  grace  of  God." 

Still,  religion  is  more  than  mere  action  ;  and  though  there  is 
an  act  which,  in  the  sense  of  a  sine  qua  non,  may  be  regarded  as 
inseparable  even  from  regeneration,  it  is  not  religion  itself  Re- 
ligion does  not  resolve  itself  into  mere  morality.  For  though 
in  their  perfection  they  would  nearly  coincide  ;  though  they 
are  never  separate  from  each  other ;  and  though  there  can 
neither  be  religion  altogether  without  morality,  nor  morality 
entirely  without  religion  ;  yet  in  the  imperfect  stages  of  their 
development  on  earth,  the  difference  between  them  becomes 
manifest.  Experience  shows  that  there  may  be  real  piety  in 
connection  with  an  imperfect  moral  development ;  and,  genuine 
moral  action  in  a  low  state  of  piety.  Besides,  the  activity  in  re- 
ligion takes  place  in  view  of  ideas  and  feelings  in  regard  to  God 
and  man,  sin  and  guilt,  repentance  and  holiness,  which  entirely 
transcend  the  plane  of  mere  morality.  Morality  has  in  it  more 
of  the  effect  of  habit ;  religion,  more  of  that  of  an  original 
power ;  morality  is  connected  with  numerous  laws  and  maxims 
and  relations ;  religion  is  simple,  and  has  but  one  object :  mor- 
ality needs  human  society  ;  religion,  only  communion  with  God: 


MUST    NOT    BE    CONFOUNDED    WITH    MORALITY.  285 

morality  expresses  itself  only  in  action ;  religion,  also  in  word 
and  symbol,  in  prayer  and  song  :  morality  only  meets  an  im- 
perative and  fulfills  a  requirement ;  religion  seeks  and  obtains 
gratuitous  favor  and  free  salvation  :  morality  rests  principally 
upon  the  consciousness  of  freedom  ;  religion,  upon  the  feeling 
of  dependence :  morality  is  in  a  great  measure  self-determined  ; 
religion  is  mainly  determined  by  another.  This  self-determina- 
tion and  this  state  of  being  determined,  do  not,  indeed,  conflict 
with  each  other;  and  neither  is  entirely  excluded  either  from  re- 
ligion or  morality.  But  each  is  so  peculiarly  predominant  in 
the  one  and  the  other,  that  it  requires  us  to  distinguish  between 
them.  Though  inseparable,  the  distinction  between  them  must 
be  observed.  When  this  is  not  done  there  will  be  different  evils 
according  to  the  several  views  of  moral  action.  When  religion 
is  placed  solely  in  the  will,  and  there  is,  at  the  same  time,  an 
empirical  view  of  moral  action,  then  there  will  result  a  mere 
opus  operatuin,  purely  external  and  mechanical  works,  a  cold 
foniialisin,  mere  reliance  upon  the  magical  effects  of  the  per- 
formance of  religious  ceremonies  and  acts.  If  there  be  a  more 
philosophical  apprehension  of  voluntary  action,  there  will  be  a 
tendency  to  the  confounding  of  religion  with  morality,  to  the 
identifying  of  the  religious  and  moral  phenomena ;  or,  at  least 
to  the  limitation  of  religion  to  mere  moral  culture  and  influence. 
It  fosters  a  proud  self-righteousness  ;  introduces  a  cold  legalism  ; 
dampens  the  ardor  of  love  in  man ;  and  shuts  out  all  idea  of 
atonement  and  forgiveness  of  sin,  of  free  grace  and  gratuitous 
justification  on  the  part  of  God.  And  if  it  take  its  highest  view 
of  action,  as  an  inner  act  of  the  Spirit,  and  speak  of  it  as  religion, 
the  question  still  remains,  whether  this  results  from  the  mere 
moral  productivity  of  the  soul,  or  whether  it  be  the  action  of 
the  new  life  produced  by  the  regenerating  power  of  the  gospel 
and  Spirit  of  God,  that  is,  whether  this  spiritual  activity  is  to  be 
understood  in  the  Christian  sense  of  the  term  ?  The  Christian 
idea  of  religion  as  fully  as  the  rationalistic,  declares  that  reli- 
gion must  have  practical  results ;  but  it  differs  from  it  respecting 
the  manner  in  which  these  results  are  secured  ;  and,  conse- 
quently, it  includes  in  that  inner  action  of  the  .spirit  more  than 
rationalism  allows,  namely,  the  impulse  of  divine  grace. 


286  THE    NATURE    OF    RELIGION. 

§  6.   The  True  Spirit,  Tendency  and  End  of  Religion. 

The  Christian  idea,  inseparable  as  it  is  from  experience,  is 
much  more  in  agreement  with  the  doctrine  that  rehgion  has  its 
seat  and  source  in  feehng.  The  principle  of  faith  involves  the 
sense  of  man's  absolute  dependence  on  God ;  not  only  as  a 
creature  on  His  absolute  power,  but  as  a  sinner  on  His  free  favor, 
on  His  unmerited  forgiveness,  on  His  gratuitous  sanctifying 
power.  But  it  is  the  feeling  of  dependence  on  God,  not  merely 
as  the  absolute  ground,  but  also  as  the  sovereign  good  of  our 
being.  It  regards  feeling  as  that  which  is,  indeed,  the  phenome- 
non nearest  to  the  central  point  of  our  spiritual  nature,  as  being 
the  basis  of  the  religious  character,  but  not  as  comprehensive  of 
it,  not  as  the  whole  of  it.  The  subject  of  religion  must  know 
the  being  on  whom  he  is  dependent,  must  know  whether  it  be 
a  mere  impersonal  absolute  or  a  living  ethical  power.  To  have 
the  element  of  confidence  he  must  cognize  that  power,  as  good ; 
to  have  the  emotion  of  reverence,  as  Jioly  ;  to  feel  the  obligation 
of  duty,  disjiist,  to  be  bound  to  it  by  conscience,  as  free ;  in  short, 
he  must  know  it  not  as  a  blind  power — a  power  which  could 
only  be  an  object  of  dread  and  not  of  filial  fear — but  as  a  per- 
sonal, living  and  free  being,  a  wise,  holy  and  good  will,  as  a 
being  who  can  be  the  object  of  trust,  devotion  and  love.  It 
must  be  properly  distinguished  from  other  feelings,  and  kept  in 
close  connection  with  inseparable  elements  of  knowledge  and 
action.  If  it  be  the  feeling  of  absolute  dependence,  this  depend- 
ence is  not  upon  mere  blind  power,  but  upon  the  infinite  as  per- 
sonal being ;  and,  consequently,  it  is  an  intelligent  feeling — a 
feeling  inseparable  from  knowledge.  The  mere  feeling  of  abso- 
lute dependence,  without  regard  to  the  nature  and  character  of 
the  object  upon  which  we  depend,  is  not  the  true  religious  feeling. 
Without  a  knowledge  of  God,  as  a  living  personal  God,  and  of 
our  relations  to  him,  it  would  be  a  blind  and  debasing  impulse, 
and  not  the  rational  and  purifying  sentiment  of  religion.  Re- 
ligion elevates  and  ennobles  man ;  it  is  a  feeling,  not  of  servility 
but  of  freedom — of  "  the  liberty  wherewith  the  Son  of  God 
makes  free."  It  humbles,  but  it  does  not  degrade  the  subject. 
It  awakens  the  sense  of  man's  primitive  spiritual  dignity  and 
high  destination,  as  well  as  the  feeling  of  sinfulness  and  con- 
demnation. The  feeling  of  freedom  itself  is  secured  by  this 
sense  of  dependence.     As  it  is  not  a  state  of  mere  passive  sub- 


A    DETERMINATE   STATE    OF   THE    HEART.  28/ 

jection,  but  of  active  freedom,  it  involves  the  cognition  of  free- 
dom— of  the  freedom  both  of  the  creator  and  the  creature,  of 
the  eternal  will  and  of  the  created  will — the  idea  of  God  and 
man  as  in  free  and  loving  communion ;  of  man  as  distinct  from 
God,  though  united  with  Him  ;  as  free,  though  dependent ;  and, 
thus,  as  susceptible  of  holiness,  capable  of  holy  action  and  life. 
Thus  it  is,  by  knowledge,  that  the  sense  of  dependence,  instead 
of  being  an  abject  and  oppressive  feeling,  becomes  the  elevating 
impulse  of  true  freedom.  In  religion,  feeling  rises  to  the  light 
of  knowledge,  of  conscience,  of  man's  original  knowing  together 
with  God  {conscientid),  to  co-knowledge  with  God — to  the  unity 
of  freedom  and  dependence  in  the  bond  of  holiness,  to  the 
blessedness  of  spiritual,  holy  love — of  harmony  with  God  and 
the  universe  as  God  wills  it. 

But  the  feeling  in  religion  is  not  only  connected  with  knowl- 
edge, but  also  with  volition.  Religion  would  not  be  true  service 
of  God,  would  not  be  actual  reverence  and  worship,  without  the 
action  of  the  will.  Men  cannot  avoid  all  religious  knowledge 
and  feeling ;  they  cannot  escape  all  divine  light  and  all  divine 
impressions.  More  or  less  religious  knowledge  and  religious 
feeling  are  unavoidable.  But  whether  the  knowledge  shall  be 
increased  and  the  feeling  cherished,  whether  the  subject  of  them 
shall  surrender  himself  to  God  in  service  and  worship,  depends 
upon  his  own  volitions.  The  religious  feeling  must,  therefore, 
be  enlightened  by  rational  insight  and  clear  thought ;  it  must 
rise  to  living  knowledge  and  preserve  its  purity  by  the  moral 
process  which  is  suggested  by  conscience  in  natural  religion, 
and  inculcated  and  enforced  by  Christianity.  Thus  is  religion 
matter  of  the  entire  inner  man,  comprising  spiritual  knowledge, 
feeling  and  action  ;  while  its  central  point  is  the  feeling  of  ab- 
solute dependence.  This  relation  of  man  to  God  is,  accord- 
ingly, designated  in  the  sacred  Scriptures  as  a  determined  state 
of  the  heart,  a  state  of  heart  which  modifies  the  knowing,  the 
feeling  and  the  doing.  And  by  the  heart  they  mean,  not  any 
one  of  the  faculties  of  the  mind,  or  of  the  classes  of  the  mental 
phenomena,  but  the  source  whence  they  come  and  the  centre  in 
which  they  meet ;  the  fountain  where  knowing,  feeling  and  will- 
ing are  identical  and  from  which  they  are  developed ;  out  of 
which  are  the  issues  of  life;  the  central  point  whence  all  relig- 
ious operations  go  out.     Religion   comes   to   consciousness   as 


288       •  THE   NATURE    OF    RELIGION. 

feeling  in  the  way  of  experience ;  to  clear  knowledge,  through 
rational  reflection ;  and  to  practical  effect,  by  means  of  the 
moral  determinations  of  the  will.  It  extends  to  the  entire  inner 
man,  as  a  primitive  life-element ;  and  in  its  full  manifestation,  it 
is  the  highest  style  of  man — the  completion  of  humanity. 

The  Christian  idea  of  religion  requires  us  to  regard  faith  not 
only  as  the  prime-root  of  the  religious  phenomena,  but  as  tJie 
great  source  of  all  the  religious  results.  It  is  the  instrument  of 
the  great  end  of  religion — of  communion  with  God.  "  All 
religion,"  says  Martensen,  "  is  a  sense  of  God's  existence  and 
man's  relation  to  God,  including  the  difference  and  opposition 
between  God  and  the  universe — God  and  man  ;  but  at  the  same 
time  the  solution — the  removal  of  this  opposition  in  a  higher 
unity.  Religion  may,  therefore,  be  more  accurately  described, 
as  man's  consciousness  of  his  communion  with  God."  "  The 
conception  of  humanity  consists  in  this,  that  two  principles,  the 
cosmical  and  the  holy,  are  intimately  combined  together  in  man, 
into  a  free  personal  unity.  It  is  the  vocation  of  man  to  be  lord 
of  the  earth,  but  as  free  organ  for  the  holy  will  of  the  Creator. 
It  is  his  vocation  to  glorify  and  raise  his  freedom  into  depend- 
ence on  God,  his  life  in  the  world  into  a  life  in  God, — his  ideal 
of  the  world  into  the  ideal  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  con- 
ception of  man  is  by  no  means  exhausted  by  the  definition  that 
man  is  a  free  rational  being.  His  humanity  is  founded  in  this, 
that  as  a  free  rational  being  he  is  a  religious  being — that  his 
reason  and  his  freedom  are  determined  by  the  laws  of  conscience. 
Conscience  is  the  seal  and  pledge  of  man's  freedom,  and  inward 
independence  of  the  universe,  but  it  is  so  only  in  so  far  as  it  is 
also  the  token  of  his  dependence  on  his  Creator.  The  nature 
of  man  in  his  relation  to  conscience  is  such,  that  he  is  Lord  in 
so  far  only  as  he  is  at  the  same  time  servant, — he  is  in  spirit 
and  in  truth  his  own,  in  so  far  only  as  he  is  in  spirit  and  in 
truth  the  Lord's  also.  This  relationship  of  dependence  arising 
from  creation — the  recipient  submissive  relationship  to  divine 
love — the  yearning  after  God  as  a  need  of  man's  nature  and  the 
holy  liberty  arising  from  it — are  realized  in  union  with  God." 

The  incdiitm  of  this  coiiujiunion  xvith  God,  is  faith.  In  it  the 
distinction  and  difference  between  God  and  man  are  recognized; 
and  the  finite  powers  are  surrendered  to  God,  not  as  the  Pan- 
theist says — to  be  lost   in   the   infinite,   to   be   absorbed  in   the 


SEEKS    PERSONAL    COMMUNION    WITH    GOD.  289 

absolute — but  to  be  restored  and  preserved  with  the  fullness  of 
divine  life.  "  He  that  loseth  his  life  shall  find  it."  The  creature 
submits  himself  to  the  Creator,  not  to  be  annihilated  and  to  lose 
the  distinction  of  his  being,  but  to  be  the  organ  of  the  divine 
life.  "I  am  crucified,"  says  Paul,  "but  yet  I  live;  nevertheless 
not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me,  and  the  life  which  I  now  live,  I 
live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me  and  gave 
Himself  for  me."  Faith  is  not  only  the  ground  of  all  religion, 
but  the  instrument  or  organ  by  which  the  subject  of  religion 
apprehends  God  and  appropriates  Him,  as  the  sovereign  good 
and  the  everlasting  portion  of  the  soul.  Religion  is  not  an 
attempt  to  render  anything  to  God,  "  for  He  hath  need  of  noth- 
ing," is  self-sufficient,  self-satisfied.  "  Who  hath  first  given  unto 
Him  that  it  might  be  recompensed  again ;  for  of  Him  and  by 
Him  and  to  Him  are  all  things,  who  is  blessed  forever."  The 
attempt  to  confer  anything  upon  Him  would  imply  ignorance  of 
His  perfection,  and  of  His  nature  as  the  only  true  object  of 
worship.  God  made  us  for  Himself;  but,  not  because  He  needed 
us.  Hence  religion  does  not  aim  at  rendering  service  to  God 
in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word.  It  is  a  free  service.  It  is  man's 
becoming  an  organ  for  the  divine  life,  for  the  manifestation  of 
God ;  and  into  this  the  subject  of  religion  gratefully  enters  ; 
and,  in  this  sense,  he  serves  God.  Nor  does  religion,  in  the 
strict  sense,  aim  at  profit  for  its  subject ;  for  this  would  be  the 
attempt  to  reduce  God  from  the  highest  end  to  the  mere  means 
or  instrument  of  the  creature.  What  it  mainly  wants  is  not 
anything  that  is  not  God,  but  God  Himself;  and  hence,  it  aims 
at  personal  communion  and  union  with  Him.  Thus,  is  God 
glorified  in  the  highest  degree ;  and  man,  most  completely  sat- 
isfied. Man  is  finite;  his  thoughts,  feelings,  volitions,  are  finite; 
but  he  is  for  the  infinite,  capacitated  for  a  truth,  a  goodness,  a 
blessedness  which  has  its  reality  only  in  God.  As  man  is  finite 
and  God  is  eternal  life,  this  union  and  communion  can  be  ac- 
complished only  by  man's  surrendering  his  finite  life,  in  order  to 
find  in  God  the  fullness  of  true  life.  The  truly  religious  man 
seeks  salvation,  indeed,  but  God  is  his  salvation.  He  can  be 
satisfied  with  nothing  short  of  God.  "  Whom  have  I  in  heaven 
but  thee,  and  there  is  none  upon  earth  that  I  desire  beside  thee," 
is  the  language  of  the  humblest  Christian,  as  well  as  of  the 
royal  singer  of  Israel  in  the  midst  of  regal  power  and  in  the 
19 


290  THE    NATURE    OF    RELIGION. 

rich  possession  of  all  that  created  things  can  afford.  "The 
truly  religious  man"  says  Luther,  "serves  God  and  glorifies 
Him,  not  that  he  may  be  saved,  but  because  he  is  saved."  He 
will  use  all  proper  means  of  promoting  and  expressing  this 
communion  with  God  and  of  faithfully  seeking  and  thankfully 
receiving  the  blessings  which  God  hath  promised. 


CHAPTER    III. 

RELIGIOUS  SOCIETY  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA, 
AS  IT  IS  ENFORCED  BY  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF    THE    REFORMATION. 

§  I.  The  Importance  of  the  Union  of  Freedom  and  Authority,  of 
the  Practicability  of  the  Developmejit  of  the  Individual  and  of 
the  Grozi'th  of  the  Church  in  Christian  Society. 

Religion  is  in  its  nature,  social ;  love  to  God  is  inseparable 
from  love  to  man ;  communion  with  God  will  lead  to  com- 
munion between  all  those  who  sustain  this  relation  to  Him. 
Religious  society  is  both  a  presupposition  and  a  consequence  of 
the  communion  of  the  individual  Christian  with  God.  Religion 
is  a  social  as  well  as  an  individual  interest.  Though  it  is  a 
personal  interest,  and  has  its  seat  in  the  heart  of  the  individual, 
it  needs  society  for  nurture,  education,  culture.  On  the  other* 
hand  it  impels  the  individual,  as  the  organ  of  God,  as  a  spirit- 
ual priest,  to  "show  forth  the  praises  of  Him  who  hath  called 
him  out  of  darkness  into  His  marvelous  light;"  and  it  calls  upon 
him  to  do  all  he  can  to  bring  others  to  the  enjoyment  of  this 
same  salvation.  All  Christians  are  priests;  they  are  a  royal 
priesthood,  and  are  "to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices  to  God,  holy 
and  acceptable  to  Him  through  Jesus  Christ."  This  will  lead  to 
association  for  the  instruction  of  the  young  and  the  ignorant, 
for  the  guidance  of  the  inquirer,  for  the  public  profession  of 
faith,  for  the  proclamation  of  the  gospel,  for  the  extension  of 
the  kingdom  of  Christ,  for  mutual  edification  in  the  faith. 

These  relations  of  the  individual  and  the  community  in  re- 
ligion, of  private  and  public  worship,  of  individual  piety  and 
social  character,  are  variously  manifested  in  the  history  of  re- 
ligion. Sometimes  the  social  feeling  is  fostered  at  the  expense 
of  individual  development ;  the  society  is  too  strong  and  the 
individual  too  weak  ;  the  public  authority  too  absolute,  and  the 
individual  freedom  too  much  restricted.  Sometimes  private  re- 
ligion and  individual  liberty  are  fostered  at  the  expense  of  pub- 
lic authority ;  the  freedom  of  the  individual  is  too  lawless,  the 

(291) 


292  THE    CHURCH    AND    THE    PRINCIPLE   OF    FAITH. 

will  of  the  society  too  powerless ;  and  the  result,  will-worship, 
disintegration.  The  great  desideratum  is  tJie  union  of  freedom 
ajtd  authority,  of  the  development  of  the  individual  and  the 
increase  of  the  influence  of  the  society.  When  zeal  in  religion 
is  great,  and  individuals  strive  consistently  and  regularly  for 
themselves  to  perform  the  duties  of  religion,  and  to  make  the 
greatest  possible  attainments  in  personal  holiness,  there  is  a 
tendency  to  lose  sight  of  the  welfare  of  society,  to  shun  public 
association,  to  retire  into  solitude,  as  for  example  in  Monasti- 
cism  and  Mysticism.  When  men  are  very  zealous  for  religion, 
in  the  effort  by  all  proper  means  to  extend  the  influence  of 
religion  and  the  boundaries  of  the  religious  society,  there  is 
danger  of  overlooking  the  distinction  between  fundamentals  and 
non-fundamentals  in  religion,  of  underrating  the  spiritual  rights 
which  God  has  bestowed  upon  men  as  individuals  ;  and,  thus, 
of  becoming  intolerant  and  exclusive,  of  laboring  for  the  in- 
crease of  external  power  at  the  cost  of  internal,  spiritual  life, 
and  for  the  extension  of  the  visible  Church  to  the  suppression 
of  the  invisible  universal  Church — for  the  mere  outward  society, 
to  the  destruction  of  the  true  inner  communion  of  saints.  And 
in  endeavoring  to  avoid  this,  there  is  danger  of  religious  indif- 
ference, that  is,  either  of  disregarding  the  value  of  religion  in 
the  individual,  as  well  as  in  society,  or  of  neglecting  it  alto- 
gether— in  the  idea  that  we  may  dispense  with  religion  in  heart 
and  life — and  soon  all  individual  piety  is  lost ;  and  society  is  in 
a  state  of  dissolution. 

§  2.    This  Object  secured  by  the  Principle  of  the  Reformation. 

This  principle  enforces  the  true  Christian  idea  of  society. 
The  heathen  having  no  conception  of  God  as  the  Creator  and 
end  of  the  creature,  and  consequently  as  the  bond  of  the 
unity  of  His  creatures,  would  make  society  the  All  and  ignore 
all  rights  of  the  individual,  or  they  would  make  the  individual 
free  in  the  sense  of  lawlessness.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church 
does  indeed,  recognize  the  personal  living  God;  but  she  does 
not  admit  the  idea  of  immediate  communion  of  the  individual 
with  God ;  and,  thus,  puts  herself  in  God's  place  as  the  bond 
of  society.  The  principle  of  the  Reformation  restores  the  true 
Christian. idea  of  immediate  comniunion  with  God,  and,  thus, 
communion  with  each  other.     The  true  Christian  idea  of  religious 


THE    BEARINGS    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEA.  293 

society  is  of  the  greatest  importance,  not  only  to  men  as  Chris- 
tians in  the  Church,  but  as  citizens  in  their  relation  to  the  state. 
In  it  we  have  not  only  the  true  foundation  of  the  "  freedom  of 
the  Christian  man,"  but  also  that  of  the  personal  rights  of  the 
citizen  in  the  state.  Heathenism  never  produced  a  Church,  and 
never  recognized  the  individual  as  possessing  personal  rights — 
rights  independently  of  the  state — never  recognized  the  com- 
munion of  man  with  God ;  and,  consequently,  it  included  the 
whole  being  of  the  individual  in  the  state,  and  sacrificed  him  to 
it.  "  The  ground-character  of  all  heathen  ethical  conscious- 
ness and  of  heathen  ethics,"  says  Wuttke,  "  is,  that  the  start- 
ing-point and  goal  of  the  moral  is  not  an  infinite  spirit ;  but 
either  the  impersonal  nature-entity,  or  a  merely  individually  per- 
sonal being.  The  starting  point  is  not  the  infinite  God,  and  the 
goal  is  not  the  perfection  of  the  moral  personality  in  a  kingdom 
of  God,  as  resting  upon  the  moral  perfection  of  the  individual 
person,  and  in  the  communion  of  the  person  with  the  infinite 
personality  of  God,  but  is  always  merely  a  limited  something — 
either  merely  an  earthly  civic  perfection  with  the  rejection  of  a 
transmundane  goal  (the  Chinese),  or  the  giving  up  of  the  per- 
sonal existence  altogether  (the  Indians),  or  a  merely  individual 
perfection,  irrespective  of  the  idea  of  a  kingdom  of  God  em- 
bracing the  individual  as  a  vital  member  (the  Egyptians,  Per- 
sians, Greeks,  Germans)."  In  its  highest  state  we  may  say 
again  with  Wuttke :  "  Not  the  individual  man,  but  the  state,  is 
the  moral  person  proper,  by  which  all  the  morality  of  the  indi- 
viduals is  conditioned,  produced  and  sustained.  Not  the  moral 
individual  persons  make  the  state,  but  the  state  makes  the  moral 
persons."  Now  the  Christian  idea  is  the  reverse  of  this.  It 
recognizes  the  individual  man's  fundamental,  primitive  relation 
to  be  his  relation  to  the  personal  Creator  and  ruler  of  the  world ; 
and,  the  Christian  as  coming  directly  to  Christ  and  into  immedi- 
ate communion  with  God  through  Him  or  in  Him.  The  Church 
does  not  make  the  individual  Christians,  but  itself  results  from 
their  existence.  God  calls  men  into  communion  with  Himself 
through  His  gospel  and  spirit ;  and,  thus,  constitutes  them  His 
Church.  This  idea  was  realized  practically  to  a  great  extent  in 
the  primitive  Church.  But  the  intellectual  apprehension  of  it 
was  fully  made  only  in  the  great  Reformation ;  and  it  is  being 
only  gradually  appropriated  in  the  Church  and  the  state  in  mod- 


294  THE    CHURCH    AND    THE    PRINCIPLE    OF    FAITH. 

ern  times.  True  civil  liberty  i;i  the  state,  as  well  as  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  rights  of  the  Christian  man  in  ecclesiastical  society, 
springs  from  the  great  principle  of  that  movement.  The  Chris- 
tian idea  of  the  Church  was  revived  by  the  recognition  of  the 
personal  nature  of  the  Christian's  relation  to  God  in  Christianity,  , 
which  was  brought  fully  and  experimentally  to  light  by  the  fact 
of  justification  by  faith  in  Christ  alone,  by  the  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  the  certainty  of  forgiveness  of  sin  and  divine  favor,  the 
assurance  of  salvation,  comes  not  through  the  visible  Church, 
but  by  the  light  of  the  Scriptures,  and  the  experience  of  justifi- 
cation by  faith  in  Christ  alone,  produced  by  the  regenerating  and 
witnessing  powers  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  heart  of  the  indi- 
vidual—which accompany  the  ministrations  of  the  Church. 

The  Augsburg  Confession  says  of  the  Reformers:  "They 
likewise  teach  that  there  will  always  be  one  holy  Church.  But 
the  Church  is  the  congregation  of  saints  in  which  the  gospel  is 
correctly  taught,  and  the  Sacraments  are  properly  administered. 
And  for  the  true  unity  of  the  Church,  it  is  sufficient  to  agree 
concerning  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  and  the  administration 
of  the  Sacraments.  Nor  is  it  necessary  that  the  same  human 
traditions — that  is,  rites  and  ceremonies  instituted  by  men — 
should  everywhere  be  observed.  As  Paul  says :  One  faith,  one 
baptism,  one  God  and  Father  of  all,  etc. 

"  Although  the  Church  is  properly  a  congregation  of  saints  and 
true  believers,  yet  as  in  the  present  life  many  hypocrites  and 
wicked  men  are  mingled  with  them,  it  is  lawful  for  us  also  to 
receive  the  Sacraments,  though  administered  by  bad  men,  agree- 
ably to  the  declaration  of  our  Saviour,  that  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  sit  in  Moses'  seat,  etc." 

And  Melanchthon,  in  the  Apology  for  the  Confession,  thus 
comments  upon  this  article :  "  But  the  Christian  Church  consists 
not  alone  in  communion  of  outward  signs,  but  especially  in  com- 
munion inwardly  of  spiritual  possessions  of  the  heart,  as  that  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  of  faith,  of  the  fear  and  love  of  God ;  and  yet 
this  same  Church  has  also  external  signs  by  which  she  is 
known — namely:  where  the  pure  Word  of  God  has  free  course, 
where  the  Sacraments  are  administered  according  to  it,  there 
certainly  is  the  Church ;  there  are  Christians  ;  and  this  Church 
only  is  called,  in  the  Scriptures,  the  body  of  Christ.  For  Christ 
is   her   Head,  and   sanctifies   and  strengthens  her  through   the 


THE    MARKS    OF   THE    TRUE    CHURCH.  295 

Spirit,  as  Paul  says  to  the  Ephesians:  'And  gave  Him  to  be 
Head  over  all  things  to  the  Church,  which  is  His  body,  the  full- 
ness of  Him  that  filleth  all  in  all.'  Therefore,  those  in  whom 
Christ  through  His  Spirit  does  not  operate,  are  not  members  of 

Christ For  Paul    tells  the  Ephesians  (v.  23)  what  the 

Church  is,  and  indicates  also,  at  the  same  time,  outward  signs — 
namely:  the  gospel  and  the  Sacraments.  This  language  of  the 
Apostle  we  have  followed  very  closely  in  our  Confession;  and 
we  confess  also  in  our  Holy  Symbol  and  faith :  '  I  believe  in  the 
Holy  Christian  Church.'  In  this  we  say  that  the  Church  is 
holy ;  but  the  ungodly  and  the  wicked  cannot  be  the  Church. 
In  the  Creed  there  follows  immediately  thereafter,  communion  of 
saints,  which  expresses  still  more  clearly  what  the  Christian 
Church  is — namely:  the  mass  or  congregation  who  confess  one 
gospel,  have   one   confession  of  Christ,  have  one    spirit  which 

renews,  sanctifies  and  governs  their  hearts Not  to  doubt 

that  the  Christian  Church  is  in  being  and  lives  on  earth,  which 
is  the  bride  of  Christ,  although  the  ungodly  mass  is  more  and 
greater ;  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  operates  here  on  earth  in  the 
mass  which  is  called  the  Church  ;  forgives  sin  daily,  hears  prayer 
daily,  quickens  His  own  people,  in  temptations,  with  rich,  strong 
consolations The  Church  is  not  like  another  outward  pol- 
ity, limited  to  this  or  that  country,  kingdom  or  class,  as  the  Pope 
would  say  of  Rome;  but  it  is  certainly  true  that  the  company  and 
the  men  are  the  true  Church  who,  here  and  there,  throughout  the 
world,  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  of  the  sun,  truly  believe  in 
Christ,  who  have  one  gospel,  one  Christ,  the  same  baptism  and 
Sacrament,  and  are  governed  by  one  Holy  Ghost,  although  they 

have  unlike  ceremonies Although  the  wicked  and  ungodly 

hypocrites  have  communion  of  outward  signs  in  names  and 
offices  with  the  true  Church,  yet  if  we  would  say  precisely  what 
the  Church  is,  we  must  say  that  the  Church  is  the  body  of 
Christ,  and  has  communion  not  only  in  outward  signs,  but  has 
in  the  heart  these  goods — the  Holy  Ghost  and  faith. 

"  For  we  must  certainly  know  whereby  we  become  members 
of  Christ,  and  what  it  is  that  makes  us  living  members  of  the 
Church.  For  were  we  to  say  that  the  Church  is  only  an  out- 
ward polity  like  other  governments,  in  which  there  are  good 
and  bad,  etc.,  then  no  one  could  learn  from  this,  or  understand 
that  Christ's  Kingdom  is  the  spiritual  kingdom  which  it  really 


290  THE    CHURCH    AND    THE    PRINCIPLE    OF    FAITH. 

is,  in  which  Christ  inwardly  governs,  strengthens  and  comforts 
the  hearts,  dispenses  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  manifold  spiritual 
gifts  ;  but,  would  think   that   it   was  an  outward   procedure,  a 

certain  order  of  particular  ceremonies  of  divine  worship , 

And"  we  do  not  speak  of  an  imaginary  Church  which  is  nowhere 
to  be  found,  but  we  say  and  know  for  certain  thatt  his  Church, 

in  which   saints   live,  exists   and   lives  on  earth But,   as 

there  are  clear  promises  of  God  in  the  Scriptures  that  the 
Church  shall  always  have  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  there  are  also 
solemn  warnings  in  the  Scriptures  that  alongside  of  the  true 
preachers  there  will  creep  in  false  teachers  and  wolves.  This, 
however,  is,  notwithstanding,  the  Christian  Church  which  has  the 
Holy  Ghost.  The  wolves  and  the  false  teachers,  though  they 
rage  and  work  mischief  in  the  Church,  are  not  the  Church  and 
Kingdom  of  Christ Therefore  we  say  and  conclude  ac- 
cording to  the  Holy  Scripture,  that  the  true  Christian  Church  is 
the  multitude  of  those,  here  and  there,  throughout  the  world, 
who  truly  believe  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and  who  have  the  Holy 
Ghost.  And  we  confess  that  as  long  as  this  life  on  earth  lasts, 
many  hypocrites  and  wicked  persons  are  mingled  with  true 
Christians  in  the  Church,  and  who  are  also  members  of  the 
Church,  so  far  as  outward  signs  are  concerned." 

§  3.  Christian  Believers  a  Universal  Priesthood,  all  in  the  same 
Relation  to  Christ,  anel,  conseqiieiitly,  all  Possessed  of  Equal 
Rights  and  Privileges. 

The  principle  of  the  Reformation,  at  once,  announced  and 
established  the  idea  of  the  universal  priesthood  of  believers, 
the  equality  of  all  Christians  in  the  Church.  As  all  sustain  a 
like  personal  relation  to  God,  are  in  the  same  communion  with 
Him, — they  are  all  immediately  members  of  His  Kingdom.  No 
order  of  men  comes  between  Christ  and  the  Church.  Only  the 
office  of  Christ  precedes  the  Church.  All  men  hi  it,  conse- 
quently, have  the  same  way  of  access  to  God,  and  the  same 
rights  and  privileges.  The  Church  in  its  original  constitution 
is  not  a  duality,  but  a  unity ;  does  not  consist  of  two  kinds  of 
members,  clergy  and  laity;  but  is  a  universal  priesthood. 
The  special  ministry  does  not  exist  before  the  Church;  it  does 
not  produce  the  Church,  but  springs  out  of  it.  The  office  of 
the  ministry  is  conferred  by  Christ ;  but  it  is  transferred  by  the 


THE  UNIVERSAL    PRIESTHOOD    OF    CHRISTIANS.  297 

Church.  The  ofifice  is  bestowed  upon  the  congregation  of 
believers ;  to  it  is  given  the  commission  to  preach  the  gospel, 
to  teach  and  baptize  all  nations  ;  this  it  fulfills,  partly,  through 
all  her  members,  and,  especially,  by  transferring  the  exercise  of 
its  functions,  to  men  whom  she  can  recognize  as  qualified,  and 
called  by  the  divine  Spirit,  to  be  devoted  entirely  to  this  work. 

Luther — in  giving  the  ground  and  reason  out  of  the  Scripture 
that  a  Christian  congregation  or  communion  has  the  right  and 
the  power  to  judge  concerning  doctrine,  and  to  call  and  dismiss 
teachers — fully  recognizes  the  right  both  of  the  person  who  feels 
called  of  God  to  preach,  and  that  of  the  Church  to  call  or  reject 
him,  if  they  do  not  consider  him  thus  called.  "  But  if  it  be  true 
that  they  have  God's  Word,  and  are  anointed  by  Him,  then  they 
are  bound  to  confess,  teach,  and  diffuse  the  same,  as  Paul  says 
(i  Cor.  iv.  10) :  For  we  have  also  the  same  spirit  of  faith,  there- 
fore we  speak;  as  also  the  prophet  says  (Ps.  c.xvi.  15):  I  have 
believed,  therefore  have  I  spoken.  And  the  51st  Psalm  says  of 
all  Christians :  I  will  teach  transgressors  Thy  ways,  and  sinners 
shall  be  converted  unto  Thee.  So  that  here  again  it  is  certain 
that  a  Christian  has  not  only  the  right  and  power  to  teach  God's 
Word,  but  that  he  is  bound,  at  the  peril  of  his  soul  and  the  dis- 
pleasure of  God,  to  do  it. 

"  But  how  is  this;  you  say  if  he  is  not  called  to  this  he  dare  not 
preach,  as  you  yourself  have  often  taught.  Answer:  Here  you 
are  to  regard  the  Christian  in  two  kinds  of  places.  If  he  be  at 
a  place  where  there  are  no  Christians,  there  he  needs  no  other 
call  than  that  he  is  a  Christian,  inwardly  called  and  anointed  of 
God.  There  he  is  bound  by  the  duty  of  brotherly  love,  though 
no  man  has  called  him  to  it,  to  teach  and  preach  the  gospel  to 
the  erring  heathen  or  non-Christians. 

"On  the  other  hand,  when  he  is  at  a  place  where  there  are 
Christians,  equal  in  right  and  power  with  himself,  he  should  not 
put  himself  forward,  but  let  himself  be  called  out  to  preach  and 
teach,  in  the  place,  and  at  the  request  of  the  others.  Yea,  a 
Christian  has  so  much  power  that  he  may  and  shall  speak  in  the 
midst  of  Christians,  uncalled  of  men,  whenever  he  sees  that  the 
teacher  in  that  place  fails,  so  that  it  be  done  in  a  decent  and 
orderly  manner.  This  Paul  clearly  teaches  (i  Cor.  xiv.  30):  If 
anything  be  revealed  to  another  that  sitteth  by,  let  the  first  hold 
his  peace.     Behold  here  what  Paul  does  ;  he  commands  him  who 


298  THE    CHURCH    AND    THE    PRINXIPLE    OF    FAITH. 

teaches  in  the  midst  of  Christians  to  be  silent  and  abdicate ;  and 
commands  him  who  hears  to  stand  forth,  uncalled ;  and  all  be- 
cause necessity  knows  no  law.  If,  then,  Paul  here,  when  it  is 
necessary,  bids  each  one  to  stand  up  uncalled  in  the  midst  of 
Christians,  and  calls  him  through  this  Word  of  God;  and  bids 
the  other  abdicate,  and  discharges  them  by  the  pov/er  of  this 
Word;  how  much  more  is  it  right  that  a  whole  congregation 
should  call  one  to  such  an  office,  when  it  is  necessary,  as  it  is  at 
all  times,  and  especially  now.  For,  in  the  same,  Paul  gives  every 
Christian  power  to  teach  in  the  midst  of  Christians,  if  it  be 
necessary  (i  Cor.  xiv.  39,  40;)"  (Vol.  xviii.  p.  429). 

§  4.   TJie  Universal  Priesthood  and  the  Special  Ministry. 

The  Church  has  a  great  commission  to  fulfill.  Consisting  of 
all  true  believers  wherever  they  are,  she  is  commissioned  to 
teach  all  nations.  Inseparable  from  her  faith  are  the  authority 
and  the  duty  to  see  to  it,  that  the  office  of  preaching  the  gospel 
and  administering  the  Sacraments  be  duly  performed.  And  the 
congregation  of  believers,  in  its  original  and  indestructible  unity, 
including  all  its  members,  is  possessed  of  the  office  instituted  by 
Christ.  In  this  capacity  she  transfers  to  particular  persons, 
whom  she  deems  especially  endowed  for  and  called  to  this  work, 
to  a  special  ministry,  to  the  leadership  in  the  fulfillment  of  her 
great  commission  to  the  world ;  and  recognizes  a  variety  of  offices 
as  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  order,  and  the  increase  of  effi- 
ciency in  the  performance  of  her  great  work ;  for  her  inner  edi- 
fication and  her  external  extension  ;  for  the  conversion  of  souls 
and  the  conquest  of  the  world  for  Christ.  She  is  endowed  with 
this  authority  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  is  the  author  of  the  faith 
of  the  believers  constituting  her  body.  "  I  believe  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  Holy  Christian  Church."  Not  dependent  on 
Pope,  bishop  or  priest ;  "  all  believers  are  priests,"  says  Luther, 
"by  Baptism" — baptism,  which  is  valid  not  because  of  its  being 
administered  by  a  special  order  of  persons,  but  simply  by  virtue 
of  the  divine  Word  and  institution.  The  Church  to  which  the 
gospel  of  salvation,  the  Word  and  sacraments  are  committed, 
consists  alike  of  all  believers.  Though  invisible,  she  has  reality 
in  spirit:  "The  foundation  of  God  standeth  sure  having  this  seal, 
The  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  His"  (2  Tim.  ii.  19).  Though 
her  faith  be  an  invisible  reality,  those  who  possess  this  faith  are 


SPECIAL    MINISTRY    AND    UNIVERSAL    PRIESTHOOD.  299 

visible  persons,  and  they  must  and  will  associate  and  labor  to- 
gether for  mutual  edification,  and  for  the  diffusion  of  the  gospel. 
And  wherever  the  Word  of  God  is — and  it  abideth  forever — 
"  There,  also,"  says  Luther,  "  there  will  always  be  believers,"  and 
consequently,  the  Church.  Thus,  the  Church  becomes  visible  in 
the  acting  out  of  her  faith — is  manifested  in  organizations,  in 
which  there  will  be  mingled,  as  the  Augsburg  Confession  says, 
"unbelievers  and  hypocrites."  But  the  Church  will  still  manifest 
her  presence  by  the  administration  of  the  Word  and  sacraments, 
and  in  enforcing  the  other  half  of  the  Scriptural  mark  (2  Tim. 
ii.  19).  "And  let  everyone  that  nameth  the  name  of  Christ 
depart  from  iniquity."  She  makes  herself  known  by  maintaining 
the  public  preaching  of  the  Word,  and  by  the  administration  of 
social  discipline.  Her  presence  will  be  discernible  to  the  eye  of 
faith,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  unbelief  and  hypocrisy  which  thrust 
themselves  upon  her,  in  the  language  of  Luther,  "as  scabs  upon 
the  body."  She  must  preach  the  gospel  effectually,  and  hence 
she  recognizes  the  importance  of  a  special  ministry  to  fulfill,  in 
the  best  manner  possible,  the  office  of  teaching  which  Christ  has 
instituted.  But  this  special  ministry,  arising,  as  it  does,  out  of 
the  universal  priesthood,  and  existing  only  along  with  it,  exer- 
cises its  functions  by  the  authority,  and  in  the  name  of  the  uni- 
versal priesthood.  It  must  never  supersede  the  latter,  nor  hinder 
its  activity.  It  may  only  be  a  leader  among  equals,  a  helper  of 
all  in  the  one  common  work  of  testifying  for  Christ  in  word  as 
well  as  in  deed.  She  does  not  give  any  man  the  authority  to 
preach.  This  all  have.  The  universal  priesthood  does  not,  in 
the  first  instance,  call  any  man  to  the  special  ministry.  This  the 
Spirit  does.  They  only  design  to  call  those,  whom  the  Spirit 
has  first  called.  But  they  have  a  right  to  recognize  or  resist  the 
claim  of  any  one  professing  to  be  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to 
exercise  a  special  ministry  among  them,  according  to  their  judg- 
ment of  the  evidence  of  his  being  actually  thus  called.  And 
if  such  a  man  could  not  find  a  congregation  of  professing  Chris- 
tians to  recognize  his  ministry,  that  would  not  necessarily  be 
proof  to  him  that  he  was  not  called  of  God.  The  Church  is 
not  infallible  in  any  of  her  visible  organizations ;  the  visible 
Church  may  have  become  so  corrupt  as  to  have  so  far  driven 
back  the  power  of  the  invisible  Church,  that  she  can  express 
herself  in  few  visible  congregations.     There   may  be   a  mistake 


300  THE    CHURCH    AND    THE    PRINCIPLE    OF    FAITH. 

in  his  rejection.  He  must  go  then  to  those  who  are  not  profess- 
ing- Christians — to  the  multitude  outside  of  the  visible  Church  in 
Christendom,  or  to  the  heathen,  and  preach  to  them — to  men 
who  can  lay  no  claim  to  the  right  and  authority  of  a  spiritual 
priesthood.  And  if  he  be  really  called  of  God,  souls  will  be 
converted — God's  seals  to  His  ministry — and  they  will,  as  a  true 
spiritual  priesthood,  r-ecognize  His  ministry.  Should  the  congre- 
gations rejecting  him  have  been  mistaken  or  false  professors,  he 
will  have  better  certificates  than  theirs — "  epistles  known  and 
read  of  all  men." 

§  5.    The  Church  and  Her  Government. 

The  congregation  of  believers  must  in  the  orderly  use  of  the 
means  of  grace — of  religious  communion  and  spiritual  culture — 
have  some  arrangement  for  inner  edification  and  external  exten- 
sion. She  must  have  rules  for  the  admission  and  dismission  of 
members,  for  the  adjustment  of  the  relations  of  her  different 
offices,  and  for  the  exercise  of  her  social  functions,  that  is,  she 
must,  like  every  other  society,  have  a  constitution  or  form  of  gov- 
ernment and  discipline.  But  such  constitution  rests  upon  and 
is  sustained  by  a  common  consciousness,  and  for  common  rights 
and  privileges.  For  the  sake  of  greater  efficiency,  she  may 
transfer  the  administration  of  this  government  and  discipline  to 
her  special  ministers  and  others.  But  she  may  also  withdraw  it, 
whenever  she  deems  it  proper  so  to  do.  As  she  originates  and 
establishes  the  forms  of  government  and  discipline,  so  she  can 
change  or  abolish  them,  and  introduce  others,  when  she  believes 
them  to  be  defective  or  wrong  in  themselves,  or  unsuited  to  the 
wants  of  particular  countries  or  ages.  She  must  profess  her 
faith  in  an  intelligible  and  impressive  manner ;  and  hence,  she 
must  have  confessions  of  faith  and  systems  of  theology.  But 
she  cannot  allow  them  to  be  made  binding  on  her  members  be- 
yond the  conditions  of  saving  faith.  No  human  authority — 
whether  it  call  itself  representative  church,  or  special  ministry, 
council  or  synod — can  come  between  Christ  and  believers,  to 
enforce  its  decrees  as  a  creed  or  confession  of  the  Church.  The 
true  followers  of  Christ  know  Him,  know  His  voice,  and  are, 
consequently  to  be  governed  entirely  by  His  authority,  that  is, 
by  His  Word  and  Spirit.  "  It  is  not  the  Pope  nor  bishops  alone," 
according  to  Luther,  "  who  can  call  a  council.     Laymen  are  co- 


THE    UNITY    OF    ORDER    AND    FREEDOM.  3OI 

priests  with  the  special  ministry,  equally  spiritual  and  equally 
powerful  in  all  things..  They  can  and  should,  at  this  time,  call 
a  free  council,  a  Christian  council.  Each  citizen  of  the  spiritual 
city  of  Christ  is  to  extinguish  any  fire  of  offences,  arising  in  the 
government  of  the  Pope,  or  of  whomsoever  it  may  be.  There 
is  no  power  in  the  Church  except  for  reformation.  If  the  Pope 
use  violence,  and  resist  a  free,  Christian  council,  let  him  and  his 
power  be  disregarded ;  and  if  he  should  ex-communicate  and 
thunder,  we  should  not  mind  it ;  but  in  turn  ex-communicate 
him.  And  should  signs  appear  in  his  favor  against  the  lay- 
power,  yea,  though  it  should  rain  and  hail  wonders  and  plagues, 
we  should  regard  them  only  as  '  lying  wonders.'  The  keys  are 
not  given  to  the  Pope  alone,  but  to  the  whole  congregation." 

In  these  passages  there  breathes  the  spirit  of  the  great 
Reformation.  Luther  does  not  regard  the  distinction  between 
clergy  and  laity  as  the  difference  between  authority  and  obedi- 
ence. He  would  not,  in  the  work  of  the  Church  and  the  admin- 
istration of  the  means  of  grace,  have  the  congregation  reduced 
— in  relation  to  the  office-bearers — to  a  state  of  mere  passive 
obedience.  He  felt  that  true  Christian  order  must  be  consistent 
with  the  rights  and  duty  of  the  individual  Christian  man.  He 
would  not,  consequently,  in  the  name  of  order,  abrogate 
freedom.  He  accords  to  the  congregation  the  right  and  duty  of 
proving  the  doctrine  and  the  official  conduct  of  the  office- 
bearers, and  of  watching  over  them.  The  difference,  conse- 
quently, between  office-bearer^  and  non-office-bearers  is  only  a 
secondary  one,  first  derived  from  the  unity  which  is  intrinsically 
in  the  very  nature  of  the  congregation,  and  which  exists  before 
and  independently  of  them.  In  short,  to  use  the  language  of 
Dr.  Dorner,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  much  of  this  thought, 
"The  congregation  has  further  the  right  and  the  duty  of  refor- 
mation; and  when  it  is  not  otherwise  done,  she  is  herself — with- 
out, nay,  even  in  opposition  to  the  standing  office — to  remove 
errors  of  a  fundamental  character,  and  to  alter  the  ecclesiastical 
order  originated  by^  herself,  should  it  turn  against  the  foundation 
upon  which  the  whole  congregation  is  based.  No  ecclesiastical 
ordinances  had,  in  Luther's  estimation,  any  absolute  value,  but 
were  only  means  of  grace,  in  order  to  lead  to  faith.  He  rejected 
all  tyrannical  oppression  by  human  ordinances  ;  and  distinctly 
as  he  allows  to  the  consrreeation  the  rieht  to  orisjinate    ordi- 


302  THE    CHURCH    AND    THE    PRINCIPLE    OF    FAITH. 

nances  according  to  its  wants,  he  still  resists  by  all  means  the 
introduction  of  any  further  conditions  of  salvation  beyond, 
objectively,  the  means  of  grace ;  and  subjectively,  faith."  So,  on 
the  principle  of  faith  he  defends  the  ministericd  office  against  the 
opposite  error. 

"  For  as  certainly  as  God  has  given  to  the  Church  the  treasure 
of  grace  in  Word  and  Sacrament,  so  certainly  does  He  desire 
their  regular  use  and  regulated  application."  "  The  Church," 
he  says,  in  addressing  the  Anabaptists,  "  has  received  the  divine 
commission  to  dispense  the  gospel  and  Sacraments;  and,  conse- 
quently, the  duty  to  provide  through  both  for  the  extension  of 
that  salvation  which  is  to  be  universal.  But  if  we  combine  right 
and  duty  in  unity,  there  arises  the  conception  of  office.  The 
Church  has  derived  from  God  the  office  of  preaching  the  gospel 
and  administering  the  Sacraments,  together  with  the  promise 
that  God  will  be  present  with  His  Spirit,  and  thus  make  the  acts 
of  the  Church,  in  His  name,  divine  acts.  If  now  the  Church  has 
received  this  commission  and  duty  for  use,  so  she  has  also  the 
duty  and  right  to  provide  for  the  preservation  of  these  func- 
tions, and  to  transfer  them  to  individuals.  "  Ordination,"  says 
Luther,  "  means  nothing  more  than  if  the  bishop,  instead  of  or 
in  the  name  of  the  whole  Church,  were  to  take  one  from  among 
the  masses  of  those  who  have  equal  power,  and  command  him 
to  exercise  that  power  for  the  rest."  That  particular  persons — 
namely :  those  especially  qualified  for  it — .should  be  selected  for 
this  purpose,  is  not  in  conflict  with  the  principle  of  faith  and  the 
universal  priesthood.  "  For  precisely  when  a  thing  belongs 
equally  to  all  in  common,  no  individual  may,  simply  because  he 
thinks  himself  divinely  instructed,  take  upon  himself  the  office — 
no  one  may  put  himself  forth  and  arrogate  to  himself  that  which 
belongs  equally  to  all  of  us."  "  As  it  does  not  follow  that  be- 
cause the  community  may  make  a  mistake  in  the  election  of  a 
civil  officer,  that,  therefore,  any  individual  may  assume  the 
office ;  so  it  does  not  follow  that,  because  a  congregation  may 
make  a  mistake  in  calling  a  minister,  therefore,  any  individual 
may  assume  the  office,  independently  of  the  call  of  the  Church." 
"  So  far  now  as  the  introduction  of  persons  into  the  office  is  by 
human  mediation,  it  may  be  a  failure.  Nevertheless,  though 
unworthy  persons  may  sometimes  be  called,  the  regular  call 
through  men  is  to  be  regarded  as  divine  will  and  call,  as  it  is 


THE   NECESSITY    OF    A   SPECIAL    MINISTRY.  303 

with  any  other  office  which  is  entrusted  to  any  one.  Whoever 
would  present  himself  as  a  pastor,  must  exhibit  an  ordinary 
call,  or  exhibit  a  miraculous  one.  If  we  did  not  insist  on  the 
call,  there  would,  at  last,  be  no  Church  any  more  anywhere." 
How  clearly  all  this  results  from  Luther's  realistic  idea  of  the 
gospel  as  the  power  of  God,  as  always  producing  somewhere 
and  on  some  persons  its  saving  effect — from  his  idea  of  the  per- 
petuity of  the  Church!  We  have  seen  in  the  extracts  from  him 
how  he  msists  upon  it  that  "  where  the  gospel  is  there  will  there 
also  be  believers,"  and  consequently  the  Church  is  indestructi- 
ble— will  exist  wherever  and  whenever,  and  as  long  as  the  gospel 
exists.  And  we  have  seen  how  he  loved  to  repeat  the  language 
of  the  Creed:  "  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Christian  Church."  Now, 
this  perpetuity  of  the  Church  enforces  upon  us  the  idea,  if  not 
of  a  dogmatic,  at  least  of  an  ethical,  obligation  to  maintain  the 
special  ministry.  There  would,  indeed,  in  the  neglect  of  the 
regular  call  of  the  Church,  be  possible  only  a  hierarchy  or  an 
anarchy,  which  are — each  in  its  way — equally  destructive  of  the 
Church.  To  the  fanatics  he  exclaims,  therefore :  "  Whoever 
comes  without  a  call  is  a  sneak  and  a  plotter :  yea,  an  agent  of 
Satan  ;  for  the  Holy  Ghost  does  not  creep,  but  He  flies  openly 
from  heaven.  Snakes  creep  ;  birds  fly.  With  the  regular  call 
we  can  frighten  Satan.  I  would  not  give  my  doctorate,  by 
which  I  am  regularly  called  for  the  whole  world." 

§  6.   The  Administration  of  Church  Discipline. 

In  a  similar  manner  the  Christian  idea  is  applied  by  the  prin- 
ciple of  faith  to  the  securing  of  the  personal  rights  of  the 
individual  in  the  community  of  believers,  for  the  protecting  of 
the  individual  against  any  oppression  of  the  universal  priest- 
hood. Thus  did  Luther  apprehend  it.  The  whole  power  of 
the  Church  consists  positively,  in  proclaiming  the  forgiveness  of 
sin ;  and  negatively  in  declaring  unworthy  of  the  communion  of 
the  universal  priesthood.  He  makes  the  power  of  the  keys 
consist  solely  in  the  atithority  to  preach  and  apply  the  gospel. 
"  The  keys  are  properly  committed  not  to  one  order,  but  to  the 
congregation;  for  it  exists  perpetually  upon  the  earth;  and  in  it 
the  Holy  Ghost  certainly  dwells.  Of  it  alone  we  certainly 
know  that  it  has  the  keys.  Regularly  called  servants  of  the 
Church,  receive  the  keys  which  have  been  committed  to  her,   in 


304  THE   CHURCH    AND    THE    PRINCIPLE    OF    FAITH. 

order  to  exercise  them,  in  an  orderly  manner,  in  the  name  and 
by  the  command  of  the  Church ;  and,  thus,  to  dispense  the  gos- 
pel to  individuals."  Speaking  of  private  absolution,  he  declares 
it  to  be  tJie  rigJit  and  duty  of  each  individual.  "  This  power  to 
forgive  sin  is  nothing  else  than  that  the  priest,  yea,  if  it  be 
necessary,  any  Christian  man,  may  say  to  another,  '  Thy  sins 
are  forgiven  ;'  and  every  Christian  does  this  as  much  as  the 
priest,  whether  that  person  be  wife  or  child,  young  or  old. 
This  right  and  liberty  to  reprove  sin  and  to  preach  forgiveness, 
also,  any  two  or  three,  assembled  in  His  name,  possess,  that  they 
should  proclaim  and  speak  to  one  another  forgiveness  of  sins. 
God,  thus  overwhelms  His  people  with  blessing,  and  makes 
every  place  full  of  forgiveness  of  sins  ;  so  that  they  may  find  it, 
in  their  homes,  or  in  the  field ;  in  the  garden,  and  wherever 
any  one  may  meet  another."  "  Every  brother  may  reprove 
another,  and  this  is  an  exercise  of  the  keys."  The  keys  belong 
to  the  people — to  the  Christian  Church — and  consist  positively 
in  preaching  the  gospel,  that  is,  in  declaring  the  forgiveness  of 
sin.  "  He  who  accepts  it  not,  has  it  not."  What  is  given  in  ab- 
solution is  also  given  in  preaching. 

Negatively,  the  power  of  the  Church  consists  in  excluding 
men  from  Jier  communion  on  account  of  gross  sins  and  evidences 
of  an  impenitent  life.  But  this,  according  to  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation,  is  not  d.  judicial  but  a  declarative  act.  So  Luther 
understood  it.  He  says  that  in  it  the  Church  only  declares  her 
idea  of  the  condition  of  the  sinner,  and  says :  I  bind  thee  not,  but 
thou  hast  bound  thyself  with  thy  sins.  She  declares  that  it  is 
not  she,  but  unrepented  sin,  that  separates  the  sinner  from  her. 
She  does  not  decide  judicially  respecting  his  inner  state.  She 
only  declares  what  she  must  conclude,  in  regard  to  it,  from  the 
known  fact  of  his  open  sins.  "  One  may  be  under  the  ban  with 
God  when  He  is  not  with  men.  Whosoever  hears  the  gospel 
and  believes  it  not,  but  inwardly  contradicts  it,  falls  secretly 
under  the  ban  with  God."  "  On  the  other  hand,  one  may  be 
under  the  ban  wi'th  men  and  not  with  God — may  not  be  under 
it  any  more  because  he  has  repented ;  or  not  at  all,  because  the 
ban  may  not  have  been  properly  exercised.  At  the  same  time 
the  binding  key  is  not  a  fallible  key.  Where  the  ban  was  not 
properly  exercised  there  the  true  key  was  not,  that  is,  the 
Church,  which  alone  has  the  kev,  was  not  there.     Therefore,  the 


IMPORTANCE    OF    CHURCH    DISCIPLINE.  305 

ban,  strictly  speaking,  is  only  a  threatening  with  divine  dis- 
pleasure— not  collative  or  exhibitive  like  absolution.  It  is  not 
infliction  of  the  deprivation  of  salvation,  but  testimony  that  the 
soul  has  deprived  itself  of  it."  He  thinks  that  it  is  salutary  to 
the  sinner,  thus  solemnly  to  declare  that,  by  his  open  and 
clearly  ascertained  sins,  his  inner  state  before  God  has  become 
so  manifest  to  men  as  to  call  forth  the  condemnatory  judgment 
of  the  Church.  And  he  declares  that:  "Where  men  forgive 
sins ;  or  reprove  them  openly,  or  particularly,  you  may  know 
that  the  people  of  God  are  there."  Minister  and  people  should 
act  together  in  these  exercises  of  the  Church.  "Christ  has 
made  us  (believers)  all  priests."  He  would,  consequently,  not 
have  the  name  priest  applied  to  the  special  ministry ;  but  pre- 
fers to  call  them,  "ministers  of  the  Word."  "The  congreg-a- 
tion  has  not  the  right,  once  for  all,  to  transfer  the  office  of 
preaching  and  of  the  keys,  which  is  committed  to  it,  to  a  par- 
ticular order,  which  is  then  alone  to  be  responsible  for  its  per- 
petuation and  exercise.  It  is  its  right  and  duty  in  case  of 
necessity  to  interpose  again ;  and  it  has  constantly  the  duty  to 
care  for  the  preservation  of  the  pure  preaching  of  the  gospel." 
Thus,  had  the  great  Reformer  the  true  Christian  idea  of  the 
rights  and  duties  of  the  laity.  He,  for  the  first  time,  clearly 
apprehended  it  in  the  light  of  the  principle  of  saving  faith,  and 
enforced  it  as  it  never  had  been  before.  It  is  an  idea  which  is 
not  only  closely  connected  with  the  freedom  of  the  citizen  in  the 
state,  and  with  the  freedom  of  the  Christian  man  in  the  Church, 
but  with  the  purity  and  power  of  both  Church  and  state — an 
idea  which  is  only  now  being  practically  and  fully  carried  out, 
in  this  age,  and  especially  in  this  country.  And  in  this  respect, 
the  Lutheran  Church  by  carrying  into  practice — as  she  is  now 
doing  in  the  General  Synod — a  principle  involved  in  the  very 
nature  of  the  great  Reformation,  and  clearly  inculcated  by 
Luther,  will  contribute  greatly  to  the  well-being  and  progress 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ,  at  the  present  day,  and  in  this 
country.  It  would  be  a  sphere  for  the  realization  of  Luther's 
idea  of  the  Christian  man  :  "  That  he  lives  not  in  himself  but  in 
Christ  and  his  neighbor ;  in  Christ  through  faith,  in  his  neigh- 
bor through  love.  Through  faith  he  ascends  above  himself 
into  God,  through  love  he  descends  out  of  God  beneath  him- 
self, and  yet  remains  ever  in  God,  and  God  in  him  (John  i.  51)." 
20 


CHAPTER     IV. 

THE  APPLICATION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  TO  RELIGIOUS  WOR- 
SHIP AND  SPIRITUAL  EDIFICATION,  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE 
PRINCIPLE   OF   THE    REFORMATION. 

§  I.   The  Idea  of  Worship  and  Edificatio7i,  as  Determined  by  the 
Principle  of  the  Reformation. 

The  great  end  of  religion  involves  practical  religious  exer- 
cises, and  the  Christian  idea  of  religion  requires  that  they 
should  be  in  accordance  with  the  nature  and  spirit  of  the  faith 
which  is  the  instrument  of  communion  with  God.  These  exer- 
cises are  usually  called  worship,  service  of  God ;  and  properly 
consist  of  inner  exercises  and  outward  acts  arising  from  faith, 
and  expressing  communion  with  God.  True  worship  is  a  state 
of  heart  and  life  consistent  with  faith.  When  this  state  becomes 
habitual  it  is  called  piety,  and  when  it  is  manifested  in  a  course 
of  action,  it  is  termed  a  holy  life,  holy  living,  walking  in  the 
love  and  fear  of  God.  Thus  was  religion  exemplified  and  the 
idea  of  personal  communion  with  God  strikingly  manifested  in 
"Enoch's  walking  with  God,"  Abraham's  faith  and  piety, 
Joseph's  holy  fear  of  God,  and  in  the  self-denial  and  self-sacrifice 
of  the  Apostles  and  early  Christians.  It  may  manifest  itself 
either  by  the  adoption,  in  the  light  of  the  divine  law,  of  such 
maxims  of  life,  and  the  practice  of  such  actions  as  are  known  to 
be  well  pleasing  to  God ;  or,  by  the  observance  of  external  relig- 
ious exercises  or  ceremonies,  divinely  appointed  and  obligatory 
on  us ;  thereby  to  express  our  loyalty  and  devotion  to  God,  or 
to  excite  our  inner  feelings  of  reverence  and  adoration,  of  grati- 
tude and  love,  or  to  awaken  and  animate  religious  faith  and 
holy  dispositions  ;  by  endeavoring,  in  the  use  of  words  and  sym- 
bols, to  produce  in  ourselves  a  clearer  consciousness  of  the  re- 
ligious ideas  and  a  greater  strength  of  the  religious  feelings. 

The  idea  of  religion,  springing  necessarily  from  the  principle 
of  the  Reformation,  sheds  a  most  clear  and  important  light  upon 
the  nature  and  use  of  these  divinely-appointed  means  of  grace, 

(306) 


THE   TWO    GREAT    ERRONEOUS    TENDENCIES.  307 

upon  the  divinely  instituted  worship  of  God.  Saving  faith 
being,  according  to  this  principle,  the  point  of  union  and  com- 
munion between  the  human  spirit  and  its  Creator  and  Saviour, 
it  requires  this  worship  to  be  equally  on  the  one  hand  an  inner 
spiritual  exercise,  and  on  the  other,  to  be  inseparable  from  the 
external,  objective  revelation  of  God  made  through  the  Word 
and  Sacraments.  It  recognizes,  on  the  one  hand,  a  real  capacity 
in  man  for  God,  and  consequently  for  worshiping  him  in  spirit, 
an  innate  susceptibility,  for  personal  and  immediate  communion 
with  Him,  and  therefore  for  worshiping  Him  in  truth.  But  this 
capacity  and  susceptibility  are  not  productive,  but  only  receptive, 
are  not  spontaneously  exercised  aright,  but  only  as  they  are 
moved  by  divine  influence.  The  principle,  consequently,  re- 
quires, as  we  have  seen,  that  in  this  matter,  as  in  everything 
belonging  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  the  soul,  we 
should  be  deeply  sensible  of  both  the  necessity  of  the  miracu- 
lous objective  revelation  historically  made  and  recorded  in  the 
Bible,  and  of  the  inner  revelation  of  the  Spirit  in  the  soul ;  of  the 
means  of  grace,  and  of  the  superadded  immediate  influences  of 
the  Holy  Spirit;  and  that  we  should  endeavor  to  keep  these  two 
factors  in  inseparable  union  in  all  attempts  at  divine  worship  and 
spiritual  edification.  We  will  notice  some  of  the  erroneous  ten- 
dencies to  which  the  Church  is  always  exposed  on  this  subject. 

§  2.   The  Great  Deviations  from  the  true  Christian  Idea  of 

Worship  and  Edification. 
Two  great  erroneous  tendencies  are  fully  exposed  by  the 
light  shed  upon  this  subject  through  the  principle  of  the  Ref- 
ormation. The  one  might  be  called  the  superstitions  ;  the  other 
the  mystical  tendency.  The  one  ignores  sidijective  faith,  and 
attributes  a  magical  influence  to  the  outer,  objective  means  of 
grace ;  the  other  ignores  the  objective  word,  and  ascribes  an  inner, 
magical  power  to  subjective  faith.  The  one  is  principally  rep- 
resented by  the  Romish  Church,  which  attributes  all  authority 
to  the  external  Church  ;  the  other,  by  the  fanatical  sects,  which 
ascribe  all  power  to  the  subjective  spirit,  and  put  confidence 
solely  in  the  inner  state.  The  former  is  the  source  of  a  cold 
formalism  or  a  superstitions  asceticism,  according  as  it  is  con- 
nected with  frivolous  or  earnest  minds.  The  latter  may  ascribe 
^he  subjective  power  of  the  spirit  to   the   understanding,  and 


30S  TRUE   SPIRITUAL   WORSHIP   AND    EDIFICATION. 

thus  become  rationalistic;  or  to  blind  feeling  —  to  an  inner 
light  which,  in  its  indeterminateness,  is  identical  with  dark- 
ness— and  it,  thus,  h^cova^?,  fa}iatical.  The  true  idea,  as  clearly- 
suggested  and  imperatively  required  by  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation,  the  true  Christian  idea,  consists  in  the  union  of  the 
objective  word  and  sacrajjtents  zvith  the  subjective  faith — the  union 
of  the  means  of  grace  and  the  immediate  operations  of  the 
Spirit.  The  principle  of  saving  faith  requires  the  letter  and  the 
spirit  to  be  kept  together. 

§  3.  The  Deviation  resulting  froin  Superstitious  Views. 
The  first  of  these  erroneous  ideas  attaches  undue  importance 
to  the  outer  and  historical,  to  the  word  and  sacraments.  It 
treats  them  as  if  they  were  of  themselves  without  the  superadded 
immediate  influence  of  the  Spirit,  the  presence  of  God  Himself 
It  accepts  them  as  if  communion  with  them  were  communion 
with  God  Himself;  relies  upon  them  as  if  the  divine  salvation 
were  effected  by  them  alone,  without  any  personal  and  immediate, 
distinct  and  special,  divine  action.  The  idea  is  that  the  Holy 
Spirit,  together  with  the  word  and  sacraments,  in  short  all  saving 
grace,  was,  once  for  all,  bestowed  upon  the  visible  Church  as  an 
organism,  upon  the  external,  the  hierarchical  Church — the  Church 
which  is  represented  by  the  priesthood,  yea,  is  the  priesthood 
standing  in  regular,  external  and  organic  connection  with  apos- 
tles to  whom  the  Spirit  was  originally  given — the  Church  in 
whose  behalf  God  has,  until  the  final  consummation,  abdicated 
all  saving  powers — all  forgiveness  and  regeneration.  It  leads 
men  not,  first  to  God  in  Christ,  but  to  the  Church — to  worship 
the  Church  rather  than  God.  Thus  it  meets  the  susceptibility 
of  man,  in  his  sinfulness  and  helplessness,  not  to  turn  his  nat- 
ural faith  into  spiritual  trust,  not  to  guide  him  in  his  anxious 
inquiry,  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?  immediately  to  God  in 
Christ,  not  directly  to  the  living,  ever-present  Saviour,  but  to  the 
Church.  Instead  of  deepening  the  religious  feelings,  of  pro- 
moting the  religious  process  which  is  going  on  in  the  souls  of 
men,  and  conducting  it  to  its  designed  and  proper  end — to  the 
experience  of  personal  salvation  in  communion  zvith  God  in  Christ 
by  faith  in  Him  alone — it  arrests  its  true  course,  and  connects  it 
merely  with  the  external  Church  ;  leads  it  to  rest  in  the  magical 
power  of  the  visible  Church  with   her  treasures  and   means  of 


THE   EVILS    OF    THE   SUPERSTITIOUS    TENDENCY.  3O9 

grace.  It,  thus,  induces  religious  formalism ;  changes  what  was 
meant  to  be  used  merely  as  means  into  the  end  itself;  and  puts 
the  visible  Church  in  the  place  of  the  true  God,  with  whom  we 
are  and  ought  to  come  into  communion.  It  leads  men  to  wor- 
ship the  Church,  the  creature,  more  than  God,  the  Creator — 
who  alone  is  God  blessed  for  evermore.  It  leads  men  to  be  sat- 
isfied with  mere  historical  faith,  instead  of  urging  them  to  strive 
for  living  faith  in  Christ  through  the  Holy  Ghost — induces  the 
superstitious  acceptance  of  an  arbitrary  substitute  for  real  sal- 
vation. It  leads  men  to  rely  upon  the  assurance  of  the  Church 
instead  of  striving  for  personal  assurance  of  acceptance  with  God. 
It  leads  them  to  give  up  the  real  contest  with  their  inbred  sin- 
fulness, to  abandon  the  actual  strife  for  spiritual  victory,  to  lose 
their  deep  yearnings  after  God,  their  strong  longings  for  the  re- 
newal of  the  communion  with  Him  which  was  lost  through  the 
sin  of  man.  Believing  that  in  giving  to  the  Church  the  word 
and  sacraments,  God  has  endowed  her  with  all  the  powers  of 
salvation,  and  invested  her  with  authority  to  dispense  them  at 
her  will,  men  will  sink  into  spiritual  lethargy.  They  will  be 
inactive,  or  their  activity  will  be  only  external,  ecclesiastical,  as- 
cetical.  The  Church  has  become  a  substitute  for  God  Himself 
— has  become  the  God  to  be  trusted  in  idle  indulgence,  or 
served  with  unspiritual  activity.  The  soul  is  not  supposed  to 
come  in  contact  with  God  Himself,  but  only  with  the  Church,  and 
her  ministry  in  Word  and  Sacrament ;  not  to  come  into  per- 
sonal communion  with  God,  but  only  with  the  divine  order  of 
the  world,  the  mystical  body  of  humanity,  which  is  the  Church, 
and  over  which  the  priesthood  presides  ;  not  into  the  presence 
of  the  gracious,  sin-pardoning  God  in  Christ,  but  only  into  that 
of  His  vicegerent,  the  Church,  the  hierarchy,  to  whom  He  has 
committed  all  the  treasures  of  grace.  Thus  is  the  Church  made 
to  mediate  between  God  and  man,  and  to  stand  in  the  way  of 
the  individual's  personally  possessing  assurance  and  experience 
of  the  great  salvation. 

The  error  of  this  system  never  was  fully  detected  or  clearly 
exposed  before  the  great  Reformation.  Men  felt,  indeed,  that  the 
Church  was  in  error ;  that  she  did  not  lead  men  in  the  way  of 
true  salvation ;  that  she  did  not  exhibit  the  true  idea  of  God 
and  the  world,  of  religion  and  man,  as  it  is  revealed  in  the 
Bible;  and  they  could  point  out  the  difference  between  many  of 


3IO  TRUE   SPIRITUAL   WORSHIP    AND    EDIFICATION. 

her  doctrines  and  the  inspired  teachings,  the  antagonism  between 
her  spirit  and  her  ways  and  the  Spirit  and  way  of  the  Lord, — but 
they  could  not  find  the  root  of  the  error.  But  the  principle  of 
the  Reformation  at  once  exposed  the  root  of  the  whole  evil. 
Salvation  by  faith  in  Christ  alone,  as  we  have  seen,  enabled 
Luther  at  once  effectually  to  expose  and  reform  the  great  error 
of  the  Church.  And  by  applying  the  Christian  idea,  in  the  light 
shed  upon  it  by  this  great  principle  of  personal  assurance  of  sal- 
vation through  faith  in  Christ  alone,  we  will  be  able  constantly  to 
see  more  clearly  the  grossness  of  the  error,  and  its  utter  antag- 
onism with  the  idea  and  spirit  of  true  Christianity.  Thus  it  is 
manifestly  Deism  insinuating  itself  into  the  Church.  Salvation 
is  communion  with  God  Himself;  and,  consequently,  by  making 
the  Church  take  the  place  of  God,  and  putting  God  and  Christ 
in  the  background ;  by  leading  men  to  contemplate  God  as  sep- 
arate from  the  Church,  so  far  as  any  personal  immediate  influ- 
ence is  exerted  upon  her  individual  members,  to  look  for  Christ 
not  now  in  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  personal  com- 
munion— in  His  dwelling  in  us,  together  with  the  Father  and 
the  Holy  Ghost — but  to  look  for  Him  only  to  appear  again 
at  the  final  judgment,  only  after  the  Church  has  done  her  work 
on  earth  and  in  purgatory, — by  such  views  she  hinders,  as  far 
as  man  can  do  it,  the  possibility  of  salvation.  And  she  intro- 
duces practical  Deism.  By  making  men  content  with  the  mere 
gifts  of  God  as  separate  from  Him,  she  obscures  the  true  nature 
of  the  free,  ethical  divine  love.  For  it  is  characteristic  of  true 
love  everywhere  that  it  does  not  bestow  merely  impersonal  gifts. 
It  is  the  nature  of  personal  love  to  communicate  itself  It  can- 
not be  satisfied  with  mere  impersonal  things.  It  can  arise  only 
in  a  personal  subject  and  terminate  only  on  a  personal  object. 
Its  language  is :  I  am  thine  and  thou  art  mine.  What  is  mine 
is  thine,  and  what  is  thine  is  mine.  It  seeks  communion  with  its 
object.  When  it  bestows  impersonal  things,  it  gives  them  not 
as  ends,  but  as  means  to  a  higher  end.  All  therefore  is  means 
to  the  great  end  of  personal  communion  with  God.  He  has 
given  us  the  Church,  nay  even  His  Word,  that  He  may  give  us 
His  Holy  Spirit — tliat  He  may  give  us  Himself. 

Thus  Romanism,  in  its  false  magnifying  of  the  Church,  instead 
of  bringing  us  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  full  powers  of  salvation, 
is  only  fostering  our  superstition,  and  withholding  us  from  the 


ROMANISM  AND  THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEA    OF  GOD    AND    MAN.    31I 

enjoyment  of  the  best  of  God's  gifts,  His  "  love  shed  abroad  in 
our  hearts;"  from  the  possession  of  the  highest  blessedness,  the 
"  Holy  Ghost  given  unto  us;"  from  the  true  salvation,  the  sov- 
ereign good,  the  everlasting  portion  of  the  soul,  the  communi- 
cation of  Himself  to  us,  "the  one  thing  needful,  the  good  part 
that  shall  never  be  taken  from  us."  Instead  of  elevating  us  by 
the  means  of  grace  to  the  highest  plane  of  spiritual  attainment, 
it  binds  us  down  to  the  lowest  form  of  religious  development, 
to  a  mere  mediate  divine  communion ;  instead  of  immediate 
"access  to  Him  by  that  grace  wherein  we  stand,"  leaves  us  to 
the  restless  yearnings  of  the  heathen,  never  giving  us  the 
calm  repose  of  the  Christian's  faith ;  abandons  us  to  the  sad 
premonitions  of  nature  instead  of  raising  us  to  the  cheering 
anticipations  of  the  spirit  and  enabling  us  to  "  rejoice  in  hope 
of  the  glory  of  God."  By  ignoring  personal  faith,  the  essential 
and  prime  factor  in  the  process  of  salvation,  it  hinders  the  free 
course  of  the  Word  of  God,  hides  out  of  view  "  the  exceeding 
great  and  precious  promises  whereby  we  become  partakers  of 
the  divine  nature,  whereby  are  given  unto  us  all  things  that  per- 
tain to  life  and  godliness;"  binds  this  saving  Word  to  the 
official  acts  of  certain  persons  and  to  the  interposition  of  im- 
personal things. 

She  thus  obscures  the  true  nature  of  both  God  and  man.  She 
ignores  the  true  personality  of  man — his  personal  consciousness 
and  his  free  will.  Her  magical  grace,  bound  as  it  is  to  her 
impersonal  organism  and  her  impersonal  offices,  can  be  con- 
ceived as  acting  only  by  denying  the  personal  agency  of  man, 
and  putting  itself  in  its  place.  We  have  in  this  the  opns  oper- 
atiim  of  the  Word  and  Sacraments ;  and  the  result  is  not  per- 
sonal spirits  "  renewed  after  the  image  of  God  in  righteousness 
and  true  holiness  ;"  not  souls  who  have  received  "  power  to 
become  the  sons  of  God ;"  not  "  children  of  God  who  have 
fellowship  with  the  Father  and  with  His  Son,  Jesus  Christ;"  not 
"children  of  God  by  faith,"  into  whose  "hearts  has  come  the 
spirit  of  His  Son,  crying  Abba,  Father;"  not  children  of  God  at 
all,  but  only  children  of  the  Church — a  kingdom,  not  of  personal 
spirits,  but  of  impersonal  institutions. 

So  it  obscnres  also  the  personality  of  God.  By  its  conception 
of  the  means  of  grace,  it  presents  God  to  us,  not  as  a  personal 
being,  but  as  a  nature-power;  divine   grace,  not  as  an  ethical 


312  TRUE    SPIRITUAL    WORSHIP   AND    EDIFICATION. 

agency,  but  as  a  physical  force.  God  is,  indeed,  truth  ;  and 
truth  may  be  said  to  be  God.  But  we  can  say  this  only  because 
the  truth  of  everything  is  found,  at  last,  in  spirit.  Truth  has 
its  source  and  end  in  spirit.  And  spirit  seeks  spirit ;  and  the 
revelation  of  spirit  is  to  spirit.  To  represent  divine  grace  not 
as,  in  the  first  instance,  using  impersonal  things  for  the  purpose 
of  communicating  itself  to  personal  beings,  but  as  attaching 
itself  to  them,  as  if  it  would  commune  with  them  rather 
than  with  individual,  personal  spirits ;  to  represent  it  not  as 
using  impersonal  things  merely  as  means  to  make  personal 
communion  with  finite  persons  practicable,  but  as  permitting 
itself  to  be  absorbed  by  them,  to  be  comprehended  in  them,  is  to 
conceive  of  it  as  having,  in  its  communications,  the  nature  and, 
in  its  operations,  the  mode  of  a  physical  force.  It  is  to  conceive 
of  impersonal  nature,  too,  as  having  more  capacity  for  divine 
communion  than  personal  man.  But  such  a  conception  of 
divine  grace  is  destructive  of  the  very  idea  of  the  personality 
of  God.  It  is  inconsistent  with  the  free,  moral,  holy  love  of  a 
personal  being.  Divine  grace,  therefore,  must  be  conceived  of 
as  transcending  all  means,  and  always  looking  beyond  them  ;  as 
using  them  only  for  the  purpose  of  making  practicable  imme- 
diate operations  upon,  and  immediate  communion  with,  personal 
beings.  The  love  of  a  living,  conscious,  personal  subject 
desires  living,  conscious,  personal  objects.  We  can  easily  see 
what  must  be  the  consequence  of  such  superstitious  apprehen- 
sions of  divine  grace.  The  church  presenting  such  a  view  of 
God  and  His  grace,  can  never,  by  her  religious  exercises,  prose- 
cuted only  in  a  mechanical  way,  touch  the  heart  or  reach  the 
conscience ;  never  reveal  the  necessities  or  rouse  the  feelings  of 
the  spirit  to  a  sense  of  personal  obligation.  She  can  never 
satisfy  the  spiritual  wants  of  mankind,  and  never  produce,  in  the 
soul,  the  spiritual  repose  of  faith,  and,  in  the  life,  the  ruling  dispo- 
sition, the  fixed  purpose,  the  steady  pursuit  of  holiness — of  true 
spiritual  holiness.  She  leaves  men  in  the  midst  of  the  helpless 
conflict  of  natural  conscience  with  animal  passions,  to  be  driven 
hither  and  thither  by  the  alternate  prevalence  of  the  sense  of 
duty  and  the  cravings  of  appetite,  of  fear  and  hope — at  one  time 
repenting,  at  another  indulging — until  their  character  is  fixed,  at 
last,  in  spiritual  and  "  eternal  destruction  from  the  presence  of 
the  Lord  and  from  the  glory  of  His  power."     There  will  always 


ROMISH    DOCTRINE    AND    PHILOSOPHICAL    DEISM.  313 

thus  be  a  lack  of  unity  in  the  spiritual  life  of  the  individual, 
and  in  the  community-life  of  the  Church,  the  division  of  her 
children  into  clerical  and  lay,  religious  and  secular,  the  retire- 
ment and  seclusion  of  monks  and  nuns,  the  ambition  and  parade 
of  popes  and  bishops.  The  unity  of  the  spiritual  life  in  the 
individual,  the  unity  of  all  Christians  in  a  universal  priesthood, 
the  true  repose  of  the  soul,  and  the  true  manifestation  of  God's 
kingdom  of  spirits,  is  found  only  in  immediate  personal  com- 
munion with  God — in  the  personal  assurance  of  salvation 
through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  alone. 

The  Romish  idea  of  the  Word  and  Sacraments  has  introduced 
into  the  Church,  into  revealed  religion,  a  Deism  similar  to  that 
introduced  into  the  philosophical  world,  into  natural  religion,  by 
the  infidels  of  the  last  century.  As  Deism  in  natural  religion 
consists  in  the  idea  that  God  is  not  only  distinct  but  separate 
from  the  world  which  he  has  created  ;  so  Romanism  in  the 
Church  leads  to  the  idea  that  God  is  not  only  distinct  but  sepa- 
rate from  the  subjects  of  His  grace,  from  the  kingdom  of  spirits 
whom  He  has  created  aneiv  in  Christ.  As  Deism  says  that  God, 
in  the  creation  of  the  world,  once  for  all,  endued  it  with  its 
forces,  and  impressed  on  it  its  laws  ;  and  then  let  it  develop  itself 
without  any  further  providence  of  His,  or  any  further  interference 
or  interposition  on  His  part — so  the  Romish  doctrine  really  is, 
that  God,  in  producing  the  Church  at  Pentecost,  endowed  it  with 
all  the  powers  of  salvation,  invested  it  with  all  its  spiritual  laws, 
and  now  permits  it  to  develop  itself  without  any  special  influence  of 
His  Spiiit,  or  any  gracious  presence  of  His  personal  being. 

It  is,  therefore,  of  supreme  importance  to  notice  and  remem- 
ber the  emphasis  and  clearness  which  the  principle  gives  to  the 
true  world-view.  In  this  light  God  is,  indeed,  the  author  of  the 
Church,  but  He  transcends  it.  He  has  not  lost  Himself  in  it, 
does  not  limit  Himself  to  it  in  His  operations.  And  though  He 
is  the  institutor  of  the  means  of  grace,  He  lias  not  bound  them  to 
particular  persons,  places  or  offices.  Though  a  sure  pledge  of  the 
presence  of  His  saving  grace,  they  do  not  shut  out  His  immedi- 
ate influence  upon  the  soul.  He  is,  indeed,  historically  active 
for  salvation  through  the  Word  and  Sacraments  ;  meets  the 
seeking  soul  in  even  the  merely  formal  administration  of  them 
with  valid  pledges  of  His  prevenient  grace,  connecting  it  historic- 
ally with  the  atoning  work  of  Christ  upon  the  cross ;  and,  thus, 


314  TRUE    SPIRITUAL   WORSHIP   AND    EDIFICATION. 

revealing  His  readiness  to  dispense  unto  it  free  forgiveness  and 
true  regeneration,  gratuitous  justification  and  full  salvation. 
But  He  does  not,  in  this,  cease  to  be  omnipresent,  or  to  transcend 
the  Church  in  His  free  personal  operations.  He  is  in  the 
Church,  but  He  is  more  than  the  Chiircli ;  with  the  means  of 
grace,  but  over  and  above  them.  He  has  not  abdicated  the  pow- 
ers of  salvation,  nor  transferred  them  to  His  Church  in  such  a 
way  as  no  longer  to  exert  any  special  and  immediate  influence 
upon  the  souls  of  men.  He  has  not  made  Himself  subject  to 
His  own  creatures — the  priests  and  the  means  of  grace.  He  has 
not  left  the  Church  to  develop  herself  without  any  further  influ- 
ence of  His ;  nor  has  He  bound  Himself  to  the  one  form  of  the 
dispensation  of  the  Gospel  which  consists  in  a  special  ministry, 
in  its  proclamation  by  particular  persons  and  in  particular  places 
— by  consecrated  persons  and  in  consecrated  places.  But  His 
gracious  presence  is  everywhere,  wherever  His  gospel  is  known 
or  spoken ;  no  matter  in  what  form,  in  what  way,  or  by  what 
persons ;  and  everywhere,  makes  it  a  divine  power  unto  salva- 
tion to  the  souls  yearning  for  deliverance  from  the  condemna- 
tion and  the  pollution  of  sin,  and  for  communion  and  union  with 
Him.  The  true  idea  was  apprehended  by  the  Reformers,  and 
thus  expressed  in  the  Augsburg  Confession :  "  Through  the 
instrumentality  of  the  Word  and  Sacraments,  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
given,  who,  when  and  where  it  pleases  God,  works  faith  in  those 
who  hear  the  gospel." 

§  4.   The  Deviation  Produced  by  Mysticism. 

As  the  superstitious  tendency  introduces  an  outer  magic,  so 
the  mystical  idea  leads  to  an  inner  magic.  It  is  in  danger  of 
depreciating  the  importance,  Jiccessity  and  force  of  the  Word  and 
Sacraments  as  means  of  grace.  Cognizing  only  their  insuffi- 
ciency of  themselves  to  produce  spiritual  life,  it  makes  them 
useless.  It  forgets  that  the  Word,  the  objective  Word,  is  the 
divinely-appointed  instrumentality  of  faith.  This  is  the  idea  of 
those  whom  the  evangelical  Pietists  called  mystici  mixti,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  mystici  puri;  and  it  is  involved,  more  or  less, 
in  the  spirit  and  methods  of  what  may  be  properly  called  sects. 
It  may  take  a  mystical  or  a  rationalistic  turn,  according  as  it  is 
used  by  mere  blind  feeling  or  by  the  mere  logical  understand- 
ing.    The   deviation   may   arise  from   a  true    impulse — from   a 


DANGERS    OF   THE    MYSTICAL   TENDENCIES.  315 

desire  for  personal  assurance  of  salvation.  Led  by  a  desire  for 
inner  certainty  of  truth,  a  genuine  religious  impulse,  it  refuses 
to  be  stayed  by  the  means  of  grace,  to  remain  stationary  with 
the  mere  authority  of  the  external  Word.  It  is  not  satisfied 
with  the  revelation  of  God,  in  so  far  as  that  revelation  is  only 
the  work,  the  creature  of  God,  and  not  the  presence,  the  mani- 
festation of  God — yea,  God  Himself  It  strives  for  actual  com- 
munion with  God — for  personal  participation  in  the  divine  life. 
It  labors  to  transcend  that  which  is  merely  external,  by  the 
negation  of  its  sufficiency,  by  allowing  the  critical  action  of  the 
internal  spirit — of  subjective  faith — in  reference  to  the  merely 
outward  and  objective  form.  It  can  admit  no  saving  efficacy  in 
the  Word  and  Sacraments  without  faith  in  the  subject.  In  this  it 
is  right.  But  it  still  has  but  one  side,  one  half  of  the  great  reality. 
It  properly  enough  rejects  the  outer  magic  of  superstition.  But 
in  doing  this,  it  often  fails  to  distinguish  between  general  validity 
and  particular  efficacy,  and  makes  the  divine  validity  of  the 
Word  and  Sacraments  as  means  of  grace,  as  well  as  their  saving 
efficacy,  inseparable  from,  and  dependent  upon,  the  faith  of 
the  subject.  It  thus  regards  faith  as  an  inner  spontaneity,  as 
produced  by  the  soul  from  and  by  itself,  as  not  a  result  pro- 
duced by  the  instrumentality  of  objectively  operating  means, 
but  regards  the  soul  itself  the  originator  and  selecter  of  its 
means.  It  is  not  the  Word  and  Sacraments  which  produce  the 
faith ;  but  the  faith  produces  the  Word  and  Sacraments — makes 
them  such.  In  its  desire  for  immediate  communion  with  God, 
in  its  refusing  to  be  satisfied  with  the  mere  external  Word  and 
Sacraments,  and  striving  for  inner  certainty  of  truth — for  per- 
sonal assurance  of  salvation — though  this  be  right  in  itself,  the 
danger  is  that,  in  its  one-sidedness,  it  will  attempt  to  find  God 
without  any  connection  with  the  historical  revelation,  which  He 
has  given  and  recorded  in  the  Bible,  that  is,  independently  of 
Gods  Word — the  means  appointed  by  Him — and,  consequently,  of 
the  only  saving  divine  revelation.  Thus,  the  religious  process 
degenerates  into  a  mere  subjective  movement — a  mere  human 
development;  if  in  the  direction  of  the  understanding,  \n\.o  2.  false 
rationalism  ;  and  if  in  that  of  the  feelings  into  an  impure  mysti- 
cism. As  the  object  of  faith  must,  first,  be  presented,  before  it 
can  be  apprehended — must  be  presented  in  order  that  there  may 
be  faith  to  apprehend  it,  "  as  faith  cometh  by  hearing,  and  hear- 


3l6  TRUE   SPIRITUAL    WORSHIP    AND    EDIFICATION. 

ing  by  the  word  of  God,"  that  is,  as  faith  can  be  produced  and 
exercised  only  on  the  presupposition  that  a  word  of  God  has 
been  given,  the  fanatical  mystics  fail  to  attain  the  end  of  true 
religion,  the  realization  of  the  religious  idea,  namely,  communion 
with  the  living,  the  personal,  the  revealed  God,  the  God  of 
Christianity.  For,  according  to  the  true  Christian  idea  as  appre- 
hended in  the  light  of  the  principle  of  saving  faith,  we  can 
know  God  only  as  He  reveals  himself  in  His  word,  can  know 
Him  only  as  He  reveals  himself  in  His  acts  of  revelation  as  they 
are  presented  to  us  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  That  historical 
revelation,  that  sacred  history  of  the  miraculously  revealing  and 
saving  acts  of  God,  culminated  in  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of 
God.  The  Holy  Ghost  in  His  inner  operations  only  illuminates 
what  He  has  miraculously  revealed  in  the  historical  revelation. 
"  The  Holy  Ghost,"  says  Jesus,  "  whom  the  Father  will  send  in 
My  name.  He  shall  teach  you  all  things,  and  bring  all  things  to 
your  remembrance,  whatsoever  I  have  said  unto  you."  Of 
which  words  Luther  gives,  as  we  have  seen,  this  paraphrase : 
"  Also  He  shall  teach  you  to  remember  what  I  have  said  unto 
you  ;  that  it  is  My  word  and  doctrine  ;  with  this  He  shall  remain 
and  remind  you,  that  you  may  understand  and  Judge  that  it  is  My 
word,  and  even  that  which  I  have  said  unto  you  ;  and  exhibit 
and  make  clearer  from  day  to  day,  that  ye  may  better  and  better 
knozv  Ale,  and  lioiv  through  Me  ye  are  rescued  from  sin  and  deaths 
In  saving  faith,  in  the  production  of  faith,  in  giving  assurance  of 
salvation,  in  bringing  us  into  immediate  communion  with  God, 
the  Holy  Spirit,  in  His  inner  revelation,  takes  only  of  the  "  things 
that  are  Christ's  and  shows  them  unto  "  us.  Thus  does  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  Reformation  connect  faith  and  the  Word,  and  make 
saving  faith  the  production  of  the  Spirit  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  the  Word. 

In  His  indeterminate  infinity,  God  is  inapprehensible  to  us, 
"  dwelleth  in  light  which  no  man  can  approach  unto ;"  and  His 
spirituality,  His  personal  nature  and  ethical  essence,  can  reveal 
itself  only  in  determinate,  distinct  acts — acts  of  will — that  is,  in  a 
historical  revelation.  This  false  view,  therefore,  whether  taken 
by  the  rationalist  or  the  mystic,  in  turning  the  soul  away  from 
the  revealing  acts  of  God — whether  it  be  from  the  divine  acts 
in  the  historical  revelation  of  Christ,  or  from  the  acts  of  God's 
Spirit  through  the  appointed  means  of  grace — separates  it  from 


FALSE    SPIRITUALISM    LEADS    TO    PANTHEISM.  317 

the  gracious  and  saving  acts  of  God  in  the  incarnation  and  hfe, 
the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ,  that  is,  from  all  the  zJ'ci- 
cious  and  saving  acts  which  we  certainly  know.  It  separates  the 
divine  spirituality  from  the  divine  infinity ;  conceives  of  God  as 
simple,  undefined  infinity;  and  represents  the  Creator,  not  as  a- 
distinct  personal  being,  but  as  the  All,  producing  and  annihilat- 
ing definite  existences;  as  absorbing  rather  than  loving,  saving 
and  preserving  our  distinct  and  personal  being  in  conscious 
communion  with  Himself  It  results  in  Pantheism.  In  turning 
from  the  vital  unity  of  God  and  the  modes  of  His  personal 
revelation — in  which  He  has  made  Himself  known — it  falls  into 
the  simple  oneness,  the  dark  abyss  of  mysticism,  in  which  there 
is  no  determinate  form,  and,  consequently,  nothing  to  be  known. 
In  preferring  and  seeking  access  to  the  "  pure  deity,"  in  its 
abstract  being,  it  loses  the  living  God  in  His  concrete  attributes 
and  His  personal  manifestations. 

Thus,  salvation,  which  consists  in  the  union  of  the  divine  and 
the  human,  that  is,  true  communion  with  God,  becomes  impos- 
sible. For  only  personal  being  can  love,  and  only  personal 
being  can  be  the  object  of  love.  All  beings  partake  of  good- 
ness, but  only  personal  beings  can  be  partakers  of  love.  Love 
communicates  itself;  and  this  only  a  personal  being  can  do,  that 
is,  only  a  being  who  possesses  himself  can  communicate  himself; 
only  a  being  who  is  self-controlling  can  give  himself  to  others. 
Love  also  requires  to  be  reciprocated,  and  only  a  personal  being 
can  reciprocate  love.  Love  is  a  personal  attribute ;  free,  ethical, 
holy.  It  is  both  self-possessing  and  self-communicating.  It, 
consequently,  preserves  itself,  and  makes  the  preservation  of  its 
objects  its  great  end.  Only  by  the  personality  of  God  is  man's 
personality  secured.  How  great  must  be  the  error  which  prefers 
the  abstract,  indeterminate,  infinite  or  absolute,  to  the  living,  per- 
sonal God,  the  God  of  revelation  ?  It  is  a  false  spiritualism 
which  not  only  leads  to  the  same  unethical  and  mere  physical 
views  of  God,  to  which  superstition  brings  men,  but  also  to 
Pantheism.  The  outer  magic  leads  to  Deism  ;  the  inner  magic, 
to  Pantheism ;  while  the  Christian  idea,  the  realism  of  the 
Bible,  revived  by  Luther  in  the  Reformation,  leads  decidedly  to 
Theism,  to  the  conception  of  God  as  a  living  and  personal  being  : 
"  The  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth." 


3l8  TRUE   SPIRITUAL   WORSHIP    AND    EDIFICATION. 

§  5.  The  Union  of  the  Outer  Word  and  the  Liner  Spirit,  of  Objec- 
tive Revelation  and  Subjective  Faith,  found  in  the  Principle  of 
the  Reformation,  the  only  True  Way. 

If,  therefore,  we  would  maintain  true  worship  and  piety,  if  we 
would  worship  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  we  must  keep  the 
spirit  and  the  letter  together.  We  must,  on  the  one  hand, 
heartily  retain  that  element  of  true  religion  which  mysticism 
labors  to  uphold,  namely,  the  striving  for  immediate  communion 
with  the  divine  being ;  and  on  the  other,  cheerfully  submit  our- 
selves to  the  objective  revelation  of  God,  which  constitutes  the 
contents  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  to  those  operations  with 
which  He  has  promised  to  accompany  the  use  of  the  means  of 
grace.  We  must  receive  the  Sacred  Scriptures  as  "  able  to 
make  us  wise  unto  salvation  through  faith  in  Christ ;"  the  gos- 
pel as  "  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that 
believeth ;"  the  Sacraments  as  by  divine  appointment,  valid  in 
themselves  and  efficacious  to  all  those  not  resisting  the  Holy 
Ghost  who  uses  them  as  instruments  to  urge  the  Saviour  upon 
our  acceptance.  While  we  sincerely  and  faithfully  use  the 
means  of  grace,  we  should  be  careful  to  remember  that  the  spirit 
and  the  letter  go  together,  that  these  means  are  sufficient  only 
by  the  accompanying  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  more 
men  become  sensible  of  the  nature  of  salvation  for  such  creat- 
ures as  we  are — for  finite,  sinful  beings — the  more  will  they  seek 
communion  with  God  as  the  God  who  is  love,  wise,  holy  love  ; 
and  the  more  they  seek  to  grasp  this  love  in  its  living  acts,  that 
is,  in  the  divine  modes  of  God's  revelation  of  Himself,  the  more 
will  they  feel  that  the  only  satisfaction  and  comfort  of  the  soul 
is  found  in  the  Scriptures,  the  more  will  they  feel  the  necessity 
of  the  Word  and  Sacraments  as  the  divinely  appointed  means 
of  grace.  The  more  they  contemplate  the  external  revelation, 
the  more  will  they,  in  the  internal  spirit,  behold,  in  the  visible 
Son,  the  invisible  Father,  in  the  historical  Christ,  the  incarnate 
personal  love  which  is  God.  Thus  will  the  inner  and  the  outer 
be  united  in  the  most  intense  glow  of  worship,  and  in  the  high- 
est attainments  of  piety.  In  proportion  to  the  real  penetration 
of  men  into  the  inner  spirit,  will  be  their  susceptibility  to  the 
outer  manifestations  of  God  in  Word  and  Sacraments ;  and  in 
proportion  to  the  sincerity  of  their  submission  to  the  objective 
revelation,  will  be  their  capacity   to  apprehend  its  living  spirit 


UNION    OF    THE    INNER   AND    THE    OUTER,  THE   TRUE  AIM.    319 

and  to  appropriate  its  inner  content.  The  more  men  worship 
God  m  spirit  and  in  truth,  the  more  intense  will  become  their 
love  for  the  sacred  song  and  the  Christian  prayer,  the  evangel- 
ical sermon  and  the  fraternal  admonition,  in  their  exhibition  of 
the  Word  of  salvation;  and  for  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  as 
manifestations  and  signs,  as  seals  and  pledges  of  the  undeserved, 
prevenient  grace  of  God  in  Christ.  Men  should,  therefore,  for 
both  satisfaction  and  culture  in  religion,  put  themselves  into  con- 
nection with,  and  under  the  influence  of,  the  visible,  the  histori- 
cal Church  with  her  means  of  grace;  but  to  find  these  blessings 
in  all  their  purity  and  fullness,  they  must  seek  with  all  earnest- 
ness the  communion  of  the  invisible  Church — the  Church  con- 
sisting of  all  believers  scattered  over  the  earth ;  must  cherish 
belief  in  her  reality,  and  confidence  in  her  prayers  and  her  power 
as  the  organ  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  above  all  they  must  seek 
the  special  outpourings  of  the  Holy  Spirit  so  richly  promised  in 
the  Word  of  God.  The  superadded,  immediate  influences  of  the 
Spirit  are  indispensable  not  only  for  the  conversion  of  the  unbe- 
lieving, but  for  spiritual  worship  and  inner  edification.  For  all 
thoughts  and  ideas  in  divine  knowledge,  all  feelings  and  pur- 
poses in  holy  living,  resulting  merely  from  the  educating  power 
of  the  Church,  or  the  mere  influence  of  the  means  of  grace,  will 
be  dark  and  dead,  until  the  living  Spirit  from  above  illuminate 
and  quicken  us,  until  He  enter  into  the  yearnings  and  longings 
of  the  soul,  and  kindle  them  into  the  light  of  faith  and  the  flame 
of  love.  The  live  coal  from  the  upper  sanctuary,  which  touched 
the  prophet's  lips,  must  purify  and  unite  all  into  the  life  and 
form  of  the  new  man  in  Christ.  It  must  descend  into  the 
temple  of  the  spirit,  and  burn  upon  the  altar  of  the  heart — then, 
and  then  only,  will  the  life  of  Christian  piety  attain  its  full  and 
highest  goal. 

"  In  vain  we  tune  our  formal  songs, 
In  vain  we  try  to  rise, 
Hosannas  languish  our  tongues, 
And  our  devotion  dies. 

"  Come,  Holy  Spirit,  from  above, 
With  all  Thy  quickening  powers, 
Kindle  a  flame  of  sacred  love 
In  these  cold  hearts  of  ours." 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE  APPLICATION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  TO  THE  RELATIONS  OF 
FAITH  AND  SCIENCE,  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  THE 
REFORMATION. 

According  to  the  Christian  idea,  as  it  springs  necessarily  from 
the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  truth,  saving  truth,  is  self-evi- 
dencing ;  it  authenticates  itself,  carries  its  own  evidence  with  it 
into  the  soul.  Faith  precedes  science,  does  not  depend  upon  it 
for  its  existence  or  origination.  But  it  is  not  in  contradiction 
with  science.  Faith  and  the  understanding  have  distinct  func- 
tions ;  and  when  kept  each  in  its  proper  province,  allowed  to 
operate  in  its  peculiar  sphere,  and  to  perform  its  appropriate 
work,  they  will  be  found  to  be  in  perfect  harmony. 

As  natural  faith  or  belief  in  the  objective  reality  of  objects  of 
sense,  existing  as  it  does  independently  of  any  scientific  dis- 
covery respecting  the  origin  or  proof  of  this  reality,  must  be 
regarded  as  a  primitive  belief  in  consciousness  resulting  from 
the  contact,  in  some  way,  through  organs  of  sense,  of  the  objects 
with  the  mind ;  so  religious  faith — that  is,  belief  in  the  reality 
of  the  supernatural — not  being  the  product  of  any  logical  pro- 
cess in  the  understanding,  is  an  original  belief  in  conscious- 
ness, arising  from  communion  in  some  way  through  impressions 
upon  the  soul — impressions  though  not  of  the  organic  sense, 
experience  though  not  sensuous — contact  with  the  mind  by 
means  of  revelation,  either  general  or  special,  or  both.  Its 
origination  cannot  be  explained,  nor  the  reality  of  its  object 
proved  by  mere  reasoning,  but  it  may  be  shown  to  be  in  agree- 
ment with  the  laws  of  thought. 

§  I .  Man's  Capacity  for  the  Cognitive  Element  in  Faith. 

The  origin  of  the  cognitive  element  in  faith  may  admit  of 
some  psychological  exposition,  though  not  of  logical  proof. 
In  some  way  the  mind  finds  a  supernatural  in  nature — the  in- 

(320) 


THE   COGNITIVE    ELEMENT    IN    FAITH    EXPOUNDED.  32 1 

finite,  in  the  finite  mind  and  the  finite  world — and  comprehends, 
both  the  spirit  of  man  and  the  world  of  nature,  in  this  super- 
natural. We  may  accept  a  trichotomy  in  man — soul,  body  and 
spirit:  the  body  as  the  medium  of  the  relation  of  the  soul  to 
nature,  and  the  spirit  as  the  medium  of  its  relation  to  the  super- 
natural :  the  bodily  organism  as  that  by  which  it  has  sensuous 
experience,  has  phenomena,  distinct,  definite  objects  in  con- 
sciousness; the  spirit  that  by  which  it  has  spiritual  experience, 
has  universal  and  eternal  realities — not  objects  discriminated, 
limited  according  to  forms  of  the  sense  or  the  understandingf, 
but  still  realities  to  the  soul.  By  the  one  it  has  sense-cognitions 
— cognitions  of  the  appearance  of  being;  by  the  other,  reason- 
cognitions — cognitions  of  the  ground  of  being:  by  the  one,  cog- 
nitions of  the  finite;  by  the  other,  of  infinite  being:  by  the  one, 
cognitions  of  the  creature  ;  by  the  other,  of  the  creator.  Or 
we  may  adopt  a  dichotomy,  regarding  man  as  consisting  of 
soul  and  body;  and  then  discriminate  in  the  intellect,  sense, 
understanding  and  reason;  then  the  sense  would,  through  the 
organism  of  the  body,  be  the  relation  of  the  understanding  to 
the  finite — to  both  finite  spirit  and  finite  nature;  and  the  reason, 
its  relation  to  the  infinite,  the  absolute,  through  impressions 
made  upon  it  by  revelation  either  general  or  special,  or  both ; 
the  one  giving  to  the  consciousness  the  appearances  of  things 
as  objects  distinguished  in  quality,  and  limited  in  space  and 
time ;  the  other,  the  cognition  of  the  necessary  ground  of  being 
— that  is,  of  God.  In  this  might  be  apprehended,  at  least,  the 
possibility  of  a  solid  ground  for  the  cognitive  element  which  is 
in  faith — some  psychological  account  of  this  primitive  fact  of 
consciousness. 

Man  has  God-consciousness  just  as  certainly  as  he  has  world- 
consciousness  and  self-consciousness.  He  is  distinguished  from 
the  brute  precisely  by  the  fact  that  the  brute,  though  conscious, 
is  not  self-conscious.  It  has  perceptions — sees,  hears,  tastes,  etc., 
but  it  is  not  conscious  that  it  sees,  hears,  etc.;  it  is  not  conscious 
of  self,  does  not  distinguish  itself  from  its  objects.  But  man  is 
not  only  conscious  of  objects,  but  he  discriminates  between  him- 
self and  his  objects;  knows  not  only  nature,  but  knows  himself — 
is  self-conscious.  This  self-consciousness  involves  God-con- 
sciousness. In  his  consciousness  of  nature  and  himself,  he 
knows  that  he  is  limited  by  nature,  and  nature  by  him;  that  the 
21 


323  RELATIONS    OF    FAITH    AND    SCIENCE. 

ground  of  his  being  is  not  in  nature,  nor  that  of  nature  in  him; 
and,  consequently,  that  nature  and  he  are  both  dependent  exist- 
ences. He  has,  therefore,  a  sense  of  absolute  dependence,  not  of 
mere  relative  or  mutual  dependence,  but  of  absolute  dependence, 
of  dependence  upon  absolute  being;  and,  consequently,  faith  in 
the  supernatural  and  the  superhuman.  The  cognitive  element  in 
this  faith  is  that  of  the  absolute  as  the  ground  and  end  of  the 
soul,  of  personality  in  the  absolute  as  the  spiritual  and  everlast- 
ing good  of  the  soul — of  a  personal  God  and  personal  immor- 
tality. The  idea  that  the  consciousness  itself  is  the  product  of 
blind  force,  that  our  conscious  thought  has  its  genesis  from  an 
unconscious  source,  religion  and  theology  need  not  much  dread. 
Men  need  only  to  be  told  that  it  traces  man  and  all  his  science 
and  poetry,  his  morality  and  religion,  to  the  "fire-mist."  In 
addition  to  what  we  have  already,  at  the  proper  place,  said  on 
this  point,  we  can  confidently  say  that  the  materialism — which 
denies  all  intelligence  in  the  source  of  our  intelligent  existence, 
all  spiritual  agency  in  the  production  of  our  moral  nature,  our 
moral  feelings,  the  feelings  of  obligation,  and  of  our  spiritual 
nature,  our  religious  sentiments,  our  feelings  of  reverence  and 
worship — that  this  materialism  is  so  contrary  to  the  ideas  and 
feelings  resulting  from  the  very  constitution  of  our  being,  that 
the  common  sense  of  men  will  always  reject  it,  as  a  theory 
based  upon  fallacious  grounds,  as  suggested  and  supported 
by  depraved  and  perverted  minds.  It  is  so  entirely  irrecon- 
cilable with  the  innate  and  fundamental  convictions  and  senti- 
ments, with  the  nobler  instincts  and  higher  aspirations  of 
the  human  soul,  and  it  leads  to  consequences  so  brutal,  that  it 
will  be  effectually  resisted  in  the  name  of.  humanity  itself  And 
we  need  only  to  look  at  the  logical  consequences  of  Pantheism 
— of  the  system  which  would  derive  our  consciousness  from 
unconscious  mind,  as  they  are  now  drawn  even  by  its  cultivated 
as  well  as  consistent  professors — in  order  to  be  convinced  that 
the  common  sense  of  men  in  Christendom  can  not  for  a  long 
time  be  made  to  receive  it  as  consistent  with  a  sound  mind 
and  a  pure  heart.  It  will  always,  in  the  end,  be  resisted  by  the 
conscience  of  mankind. 

When  it  tells  us,  through  its  greatest  representatives,  "that  we 
are  God,  that  we  made  the  world,  made  the  sun,  moon  and 
stars,"  though  we  were  then  unconscious,  and  knew  not  what  we 


FUTILITY    OF    ALL   NATURALISTIC    EXPOSITIONS.  323 

were  doing;  that  when  we  were  force  we  were  bhnd  and  could 
choose  nothing-,  but  operated  from  necessity,  and  now  that  we 
are  idea,  that  we  are  intelligence  and  choice,  we  have  power  to 
alter  nothing  which  we  have  made;  when  it  tells  us  "that  God 
is  merely  the  blind  force,  or  the  unconscious  mind  of  nature;" 
that  He  has  just  come  to  some  remembrance  of  what  He  has 
done  in  the  past  ages — of  "  how  He  then  ordered  the  heavenly 
bodies,  formed  the  earth  with  its  various  substances,  gave  plants 
and  animals  their  organisms ; "  when  it  tells  us  that  the  source 
of  all  intelligence  becomes  intelligent  only  in  ns,  becomes  aware 
of  the  science  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  which  He  has  made,  only 
in  our  astronomy — it  can  never  meet  a  favorable  response  from 
the  sound  mind  and  the  pure  heart.  And  when,  in  its  latest  de- 
velopment, it  tells  us  that  "the  unconscious,"  from  which  all 
conscious  existence  comes,  is,  indeed,  intelligent — yea,  omnis- 
cient though  unconscious — knows  everything,  but  does  not 
know  itself — the  difficulty  is  only  increased.  For  when  the 
number  and  clearness  of  the  evidences  of  design  have  at  last 
forced  from  the  system  the  recognition  of  an  intelligent 
author  of  the  world,  it  will  never,  after  this  admission,  be  able  to 
expound  the  universe  as  the  product  of  the  operations  of  "un- 
conscious mind"  any  more  than  as  that  of  those  of  "blind  force." 
Omniscience  cannot  be  conceived  as  unconscious;  that  which 
does  not  know  itself  cannot  know  all  things.  It  is  no  solution 
to  remind  us  that  "the  unconscious  is  simply  the  all  of  being; 
and  that  in  it  the  end  and  the  beginning  of  everything  so  coin- 
cide that  there  will  be  intelligent  action — though  unconscious 
action — action  for  intelligent  ends  with  omniscient  perfection, 
with  infinite  wisdom,  and  without  the  possibility  of  a  mistake." 
For  this  is  a  use  of  language  so  ambiguous,  an  employment  of 
thought  so  full  of  confusion,  that  common  sense  and  honest  in- 
quiry must  reject  it.  Besides,  it  does  not  tell  how  it  is  possible, 
if  the  perfection  of  the  absolute  consist  in  this  coincidence  or 
identity  of  beginning  and  end,  that  the  process  of  distinction — 
of  consciousness — could  ever  have  begun.  And  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  this  is  the  latest  and  greatest  attempt  of  Pan- 
theism to  expound  the  universe  without  the  admission  of  a  per- 
sonal Creator. 

The  human  self-consciousness  is  itself  a  sufficient  protection 
against    Atheistic    Materialism    and    Ideal    Pantheism    in    their 


324  RELATIONS    OF    FAITH    AND    SCIENCE. 

denial  of  a  personal  Deity  and  a  personal  immortality.  All  the 
inferences  of  this  nature,  drawn  from  the  apparent  dependence  of 
life  upon  the  bodily  organism,  are  shown  to  be  illogical,  even  on 
physiological  grounds.  Biology  itself,  in  the  hands  of  many  of 
its  most  distinguished  adherents — whether  friends  or  enemies  of 
Christianity — now  acknowledges  that  life  is  before  organization, 
and  that  it  is  not  produced  by  it,  but  itself  produces  organization; 
that  it  existed  before  the  organism,  and  can  exist  after  it  is  de- 
stroyed ;  thus,  showing,  though  not  positively,  yet  negatively,  the 
possibility  of  a  personal  immortality.  There  is,  therefore,  noth- 
ing in  physical  science  which  proves  or  disproves  the  foundation 
of  the  faith  and  hope  of  religion,  nothing  that  can  be  brought 
successfully  against  the  idea  of  a  personal  source  and  a  personal 
immortality  of  the  soul.  Besides,  some  of  the  greatest  physio- 
logists, influenced  by  no  bias  in  favor  of  religion,  have  said  that 
they  notice  peculiar  differences  between  the  human  brain  and 
that  of  irrational  animals — peculiarities  in  the  former  indicating 
the  possibility,  at  least,  if  not  even  the  probability,  of  a  relation 
to  a  spiritual  life.  There  are  evidences  enough  of  this  kind  to 
cause  all  inferences  against  a  future  life  to  vanish  before  the 
light  of  our  personal  self-consciousness.  The  difference  between 
man  and  the  brute  is  so  clear  in  this  light  that  all  inferences, 
drawn  from  the  supposed  mortality  of  the  latter,  lose  their  force. 
While  the  individual  brute  is  only  a  specimen  of  its  species, 
has  the  whole  of  its  being  from  the  species,  is  impelled  only  by 
its  forces  of  life,  and  obeys  only  the  laws  of  its  kind ;  the  indi- 
vidual man  is  not  a  mere  example  of  the  human  species,  is  not 
impelled  simply  by  the  forces  of  humanity  as  a  race,  can  and 
does  feel  himself  under  obligation  to  obey  laws  other  than 
merely  those  of  human  nature,  has  a  higher  law,  and  higher 
motive  of  action,  than  the  mere  race.  He  distinguishes  himself 
in  his  self-consciousness,  not  only  from  brute  nature,  but  also 
from  the  nature  which  he  has  merely  in  his  race-connection. 
He  is  not  merely  one  of  the  parts  into  which  humanity  has  de- 
veloped itself,  not  merely  an  element  which  was  once  wholly 
involved  in  the  race,  and  is  now  evolved.  He  is  not  merely  an 
individual,  but  a  person — a  peculiarly  determined  individual. 
He  has  a  personal  peculiarity,  and  a  personal  goal ;  is  distin- 
guishable from  the  race  in  his  nature  and  end ;  has  the  elements 
and  tendencies  of  his  existence  not  solely  from  the  race;  has  an 


FAITH    AND    SCIENCE    NOT    IN    ANTAGONISM.  325 

impress  from  above  as  well  as  a  bent  from  beneath  ;  is  in  his 
essence  more  than  a  mere  repetition  of  the  species;  is  ever  in 
his  own  presence  and  the  presence  of  God  ;  is  morally  in  his 
own  possession,  and  absolutely  dependent  only  on  God  —  on 
being  which  is  higher  than  nature  and  better  than  man.  He  is 
so  thoroughly  separate  from  nature  in  kind,  and  so  distinct  in  his 
personality  from  humanity  as  a  species,  that  he  cannot  think  of 
himself  as  comprehended  in  nature,  or  included  wholly  in  the 
race  ;  as  having  a  common  destiny  with  the  individual  brute,  or 
even  with  humanity  as  a  mere  impersonal  nature. 

If  religious  belief  be  thus  a  primitive  faith,  it  cannot  be  re- 
garded, with  any  propriety,  as  dependent  for  its  existence  upon 
any  discovery  of  the  understanding,  nor  for  its  certainty  upon 
any  logical  demonstration.  All  that  science  can  require,  is  that 
the  idea  involved  in  this  faith  should  be  found  to  be  in  agree- 
ment with  the  laws  of  thought,  and  not  in  contradiction  with 
the  laws  of  being,  which  the  thinking  mind  necessarily  deduces 
from  the  facts  of  existence  —  from  the  facts  of  the  existing 
world. 

§  2.  FaitJi  is  not  Inimical  to  Science,  but  invites  its  Investigations. 

Some  would  have  us  reject  all  attempts  to  find  a  correlation 
between  the  religious  idea,  springing  from  faith,  and  the  law  dis- 
covered by  science.  They  would  dispense  with  all  reasoning  in 
regard  to  its  truth,  and  be  satisfied  with  the  mere  tracing  of  re- 
ligion as  a  phenomenon  of  human  life.  But  the  mind  cannot 
be  satisfied  without  making  the  religious  idea  the  subject  of  in- 
telligent thought  and  investigation,  without  inquiring  into  its 
truth  or  falsehood.  While  on  the  one  hand,  science  has  no  right 
to  reason  independently  of  the  fact  of  religion ;  on  the  other,  re- 
ligion cannot  properly  decline  the  tests  of  scientific  reasoning 
within  its  proper  sphere.  Not  every  belief  which  can  be  traced 
to  elements  in  human  nature,  or  whose  root  can  be  found  in 
something  which  belongs  to  the  constitution  of  man,  is  therefore 
true.  Many  beliefs  are  only  the  result  of  the  operations  of  in- 
tellect in  a  lower  state  of  development ;  and  they  are  conse- 
quently dispelled,  when  a  higher  stage  of  intelligence  is 
attained  They  are  the  lower  and  more  defective  forms  of 
knowledge,  and  pass  away  before  its  higher  and  more  perfect 
forms   in   science.     Thus   have   the   beliefs  in  witchcraft,  magic, 


326  RELATION'S    OF    FAITH    AND    SCIENCE. 

etc.,  passed  away,  in  a  great  measure,  before  the  light  of  science ; 
and  so  probably  will  the  great  religious  myths  of  the  heathen 
world.  For  though  they  are  not  purely  subjective,  but  have 
partly  an  objective  origin;  are  not  arbitrarily  formed,  but  are  the 
result  of  divine  contact  with  man  in  his  relation  to  the  supernatu- 
ral ;  are  originated  partly  under  the  influence  of  general  divine 
reveltion  and  of  "  sporadic  portions"  of  a  primitive  special  revela- 
tion; yet  they  are  mainly  framed  and  developed  from  the  thoughts 
and  feelings  of  the  human  mind,  darkened  and  influenced  by  sin, 
and  there  is  little  of  the  divine  element  in  them.  They  are  not 
pure  revelations  of  the  divine  will.  And  so  far  as  they  are  mere 
symbolizations,  personifications  of  ideas,  they  only  first  present, 
in  the  forms  of  the  imagination,  what  science  afterwards,  through 
the  agency  of  the  understanding,  brings  into  the  clear  sight  of 
consciousness,  in  the  representation  of  thought.  The  symbol  is 
dropped ;  the  myth  is  dissipated ;  the  mythical  history  becomes 
a  mere  idea  ;  all  is  shown  to  have  been  mere  personification  of 
ideas.  This  must  be  the  result,  because  there  never  was  a  real 
history.  They  never  were  real  historical  facts,  never  were  real 
acts  of  God,  real  expressions  of  will — of  the  divine  will. 
They  are  only  personifications  of  ideas,  operations  of  the  fancy, 
and,  consequently,  they  must  pass  away  under  the  process  of 
scientific  investigation  and  philosophical  thought  and  reasoning. 

If  religion  itself  were  entirely  and  only  of  a  similar  origin,  it 
would  have  to  vanish  before  the  light  of  modern  culture,  like 
these  phenomena  of  the  ancient  culture.  And  it  is  precisely 
because  it  is  not  such,  but  is  the  product  of  revelation  general 
or  special,  is  the  manifestation  of  will,  of  the  Divine  Will — is 
history — it  cannot  be  absorbed  in  science,  nor  supjrseded  or  sup- 
planted by  it.  It  has  in  it  an  element  which  is  beyond  the 
reach  of  science,  sacred  history  well  authenticated,  divine  acts  of 
salvation  which  carry  their  own  evidence  with  them  to  the  soul. 
But  its  facts  and  ideas  must  be  consistent  with  the  realities 
and  laws  of  the  existing  world,  not  in  contradiction  to  reason 
and  sound  conclusions  of  science.  It,  therefore,  confidently 
invites  the  light  of  science,  assured  that  it  will  never  be  dis- 
sipated by  it,  but  will  only  be  brought  into  clearer  conscious- 
ness in  the  minds  of  men. 

Besides,  though  religion  itself  be  indestructible,  it  may  hav^e 
delusive  manifestations,  erroneous  representations,  false  forms,  as 


FAITH    AND    SCIENCE    MUST    BE    KEPT    TOGETHER.  12"] 

is  manifest  in  the  various  and  conflicting  particular  religions  of 
the  world;  and  though  faith  be  ineradicable  from  the  conscious- 
ness of  men,  it  may  have  a  false  content,  as  is  evident  from  the 
numerous  cases  of  superstitious  religious  faith.  Nay,  the  p>ossi- 
bility  that  it  may  have  a  false  content  has  often  become  a 
fearful  reality,  as  is  manifest  in  the  history  of  Heathenism  and 
Romanism.  The  mere  fact  of  the  universal  existence  of  relig- 
ious faith  in  human  consciousness,  is  not  of  itself  security 
against  error  in  it,  not  complete  certainty  of  its  truthfulness, 
else  all  positive  religions  would  be  alike  true.  But  all  religions 
cannot  be  equally  true  ;  and  it  cannot  be  a  matter  of  indifference, 
as  some  think  it  is,  what  a  man  believes,  if  he  only  believes  in 
something.  No  doubt  religious  faith,  even  in  its  most  deluded 
form,  is  better  than  unbelief;  and  the  man  who  yields  him- 
self to  the  impulse  to  trust  in  a  power  other  and  higher  than 
the  merely  natural  and  human,  is  in  a  more  normal  state  of 
mind  as  well  as  of  heart,  is  a  nobler  and  more  elevated  being 
than  the  skeptic  who  resists  this  natural  tendency  to  belief 
Religion  is  the  relation  of  man  to  God — the  fundamental  rela- 
tion of  his  being — and  attention  to  it,  in  any  of  its  forms,  is  a 
sounder  mental  and  moral  characteristic  than  indifference  to  its 
claims  can  possibly  be.  Faith  is,  indeed,  cognizant  of  truth 
immediately  through  consciousness,  independently  of  scientific 
reasoning.  Science  should  not,  therefore,  seek  to  produce 
religion,  or  claim  to  originate  the  idea  which  has  its  spring  in 
faith  alone.  But  if  the  knowledge  which  is  in  faith  should  be 
only  apparent,  mythical  in  its  origin,  delusive  or  defective,  she 
can  assist  in  dispelling  the  error  and  freeing  faith  from  the 
illusion.  Faith,  therefore,  true  faith,  faith  which  has  its  source 
not  in  the  mythical  dream-world,  but  in  the  world  of  spirits — 
not  in  the  region  of  mere  intellect  in  its  lower  forms  of  fancy 
and  imagination,  any  more  than  in  the  higher  representations  of 
the  understanding — but  in  acts  of  will,  in  spirit  communicating 
with  spirit,  in  acts  of  the  divine  will — in  history  properly 
authenticated — does  not  shun  the  examination  of  the  thinking 
mind,  nor  dispense  with  the  investigations  of  the  faculty  which 
desires  to  understand  truth  and  to  know  the  reasons  of  things. 


328  RELATIONS    OF    FAITH    AND    SCIENCE. 

§  3.  Science  must  start  from  Faith,  must  receive  from  it  the 
Religious  Idea. 
While  some  would  reject  all  reasoning  in  religion,  others, 
overlooking  the  distinct  and  independent  character  of  the  relig- 
ious idea  as  involved  necessarily  in  the  movements  of  human 
nature  in  its  relation  to  God,  inseparable  from  the  exercises  of 
the  human  mind  under  divine  impressions  from  Him  who,  as 
certainly  as  He  creates  spirit,  reveals  Himself  to  it — acts  upon 
it — would  make  faith  altogether  dependent  for  its  existence 
upon  merely  intellectual  operations,  and  for  its  validity  upon  the 
demonstrations  of  science.  They  regard  religion  as  only  an 
undeveloped  form  of  knowledge,  and  think  that  the  religious 
ideas  must  be,  and  can  be,  logically  demonstrated ;  that  the  in- 
vestigation of  the  valid  being  of  the  objects  of  religious  knowl- 
edge, is  wholly  within  the  province  of  the  mere  human  under- 
standing, independently  of  the  original  testimony  of  the  religious 
consciousness — of  its  primitive  intuitions,  its  immediate  faith. 
These  also  are  mistaken.  The  thinking  mind  and  the  immediate 
consciousness  must  be  kept  together.  The  understanding  can- 
not originate  the  religious  idea.  This  arises  from  faith,  through 
the  consciousness  determined  by  higher  influences  than  mere 
human  intellections.  But  science  can  determine  whether  this 
idea  is  consistent  with  the  laws  of  being,  which  she  has  discov- 
ered by  the  investigation  of  facts  which  lie  in  her  domain. 
The  understanding  cannot  properly  conduct  religious  investiga- 
tions separately  from  the  religious  consciousness  —  independ- 
ently of  the  insights  of  the  reason  and  the  dictates  of  revela- 
tion. For,  if  even  we  had  in  the  understanding  the  conception 
of  God — that  He  is  and  what  He  is,  and  the  idea  of  how  man 
according  to  this  conception  ought  to  act  toward  God, — all  this 
would  be  a  mere  seeming.  It  would  be  God  and  our  relation 
to  Him  only  in  idea,  if  the  reality  were  not  given  in  another 
way.  What  God  actually  is,  and  how  man  actually  conducts 
himself  toward  God,  and  how  God  acts  toward  him  in  view  of 
that  conduct,  cannot  be  discovered  by  mere  thought  —  does 
not  admit  of  any  a  priori  determination  ;  but  can  be  known  only 
from  psychological  and  historical  facts,  from  experience  in  con- 
sciousness, and  the  observation  of  the  history  of  mankind — of 
the  actual  conduct  of  man  and  the  providential  acts  of  God 
The  possibility  of  sin  can  be  philosophically  cognized;  its  reality 


FAITH    AND    SCIENXE    MUTUALLY    COMPLEMENTIVE.  329 

can  be  known  only  as  a  fact — can  be  learned  only  from  history  ; 
the  propriety  of  the  punishment  of  sin  on  the  part  of  God  can 
be  speculatively  apprehended  ;  the  reality  can  be  learned  only 
from  His  revelation,  and  from  the  history  of  His  providence. 
History  cannot  be  thought  out  a  priori;  it  can  be  known  only  by 
experience.  When,  regardless  of  the  religious  consciousness, 
the  understanding  proceeds  in  a  merely  abstract  way  to  deal 
with  the  realities  of  religion,  it  arrives,  as  we  have  seen,  at  con- 
clusions inconsistent  not  only  with  the  religious  premonitions 
and  yearnings,  but  with  the  common  sense  and  general  intuitions, 
the  holiest  feelings  and  the  highest  impulses  of  men — with  all 
the  noblest  ends  in  the  aspirations  and  all  the  ethical  elements 
in  the  purposes  of  humanity.  It  tends  toward  Monism,  towards 
Pantheism,  Nihilism  ;  and  must  consistently  end  in  some  form 
of  pure  naturalism,  thus  coming  into  contradiction  with  the  dic- 
tates of  the  natural,  as  well  as  the  religious  consciousness  of 
mankind.  The  realism  involved  in  saving  faith  must  be  our 
starting  point  in  theology,  as  that  of  the  common  conscious- 
ness is  in  natural  science. 

§  4.  Faith  and  Science  are  not  Antagonistic,  and  should  be 
kept  in  Union. 

Faith  and  science  should  be  regarded  as  compiements  of 
each  other,  and  as  mutually  inviting  one  another.  The  religious 
consciousness  gives  the  fact  through  experience,  and  together 
with  this,  by  an  inseparable  intuition,  the  idea  of  religion ;  science 
decides  whether  the  idea  of  this  fact  is  consistent  with  the  laws 
of  mind  and  matter.  Religion  gives  the  realization  of  the  facts  ; 
science  the  intellectual  interpretation,  the  speculative  apprehen- 
sion of  it.  In  their  agreement  the  truth  receives  its  highest  and 
clearest  manifestations.  Thus  the  thinking  mind  by  its  ontolog- 
ical  argument  for  the  being  of  God — from  its  idea  of  absolute 
perfection  —  infers  an  absolute  being;  from  its  cosmological 
proof,  an  absolute  ground  of  being ;  from  its  teleological  argu- 
ment, an  infinite  intelligence  in  being;  and  from  its  psycholog- 
ical proof,  an  infinite  spirituality  in  existence.  But  whether  the 
absolute  being  which  is  the  ground  of  nature  and  of  mind,  or 
the  infinite  understanding  which  underlies  the  adaptations  of 
things  in  the  world,  is  distinct  from,  and  transcendent  to,  nature 
and  the  mind  and  their  adaptations,  it  cannot  determine.     This 


330  RELATIONS    OF    FAITH    AND    SCIENCE. 

must  be  decided  by  an  appeal  to  the  consciousness,  whose  be- 
lief that  it  is  such  is  irrefragable.  The  reality  experienced  in 
consciousness,  gives  and  requires  the  cognition  of  an  absolute 
spirit,  in  the  strict  sense,  as  intelligent,  conscious,  personal  will — 
of  God  as  the  living  God,  independent  of  the  world,  its  creator 
and  preserver ;  and  reason  finds  this  idea  in  accordance  with 
the  most  satisfactory  results  of  the  thoughtful  mind.  The  be- 
lief and  knowledge  of  the  reality  of  the  supernatural  and  the 
superhuman  must,  therefore,  have  in  them  elements  other  than 
mere  abstract  reasoning  or  logical  demonstration.  But  taken 
together,  and  in  connection  with  the  religious  consciousness, 
they  do  show  that  the  fact  of  religion  is  the  content  of  a 
rational  idea ;  that  the  cognition  involved  in  faith  is  in  accord- 
ance with  the  general  fact — the  ultimate  law  of  being,  which  is 
attained  by  the  exposition  of  the  particular  facts  of  the  universe 
of  matter  and  mind.  They  show  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
religious  idea  which  conflicts  with  the  dictates  of  reason,  or  the 
results  of  the  investigations  of  the  thinking  mind.  They  show 
that  the  idea  which  has  its  spring  in  religion,  which  is  an  in- 
tuition inseparable  from  the  experience  in  the  religious  con- 
sciousness, though  not  demonstrable  by  the  human  understand- 
ing, is  natural  to  the  soul  of  man.  The  human  mind  is  not 
inherently  skeptical  or  atheistic.  It  naturally  strives  in  thought, 
feeling  and  action,  after  an  Infinite  Spirit.  If  it  is  to  have  any 
comprehension  of  the  facts  of  being,  it  demands  His  actual  ex- 
istence, as  the  ground  and  end  of  the  world,  as  the  source  and 
truth  of  its  own  being,  as  its  ethical  end  and  everlasting  portion. 
Every  idea  short  of  this,  fails  to  be  of  a  comprehensive  nature, 
and  leaves  "the  world  a  mighty  maze,  and  all  without  a  plan." 
The  human  soul  is  a  spirit,  and  only  a  spiritual  good  is  suited 
to  its  nature  ;  it  is  an  immortal  spirit,  and  only  an  eternal  good 
is  sufficient  for  its  capacities  and  wants.  The  religious  idea  is 
the  only  satisfactory  view  for  an  existence  constituted  and  situ- 
ated as  that  of  man  is.  Religion  reveals  the  reality  which  reason 
may  demand,  but  cannot  produce;  it  experiences  the  reality  of 
a  relation  which  the  understanding  can  cognize,  but  cannot  dis- 
cover or  demonstrate.  But  when  the  proofs  for  the  being  of 
God  are  treated  independently  of  experience  in  consciousness, 
thty  may  lead  men  to  unbelief  as  readily  as  to  faith.  They 
have  in  themselves  no  controlling  evidence ;  and  it  is  grounded 


FAITH    INDISPENSABLE   TO    SCIENCE.  33 1 

in  the  very  nature  of  the  abstract  idea,  that  it  cannot  of  itself 
rule  the  faith  and  life  of  the  soul.  The  being  of  God  and  man 
are  not  mere  abstractions,  but  concrete  existence  and  life ;  and 
faith  will  also  be  not  merely  abstract  idea,  but  concrete  reality. 
The  proof  of  the  divine  existence,  and  the  grounds  of  human 
faith,  must,  therefore,  not  be  treated  in  a  purely  theoretic  way 
Faith  is  always  closely  connected  with  the  spiritual  disposi- 
tion. Consequently,  and  in  this  case  especially,  where  moral 
love  and  hate,  spiritual  hope  and  fear,  are  involved  in  the 
highest  degree,  it  is  only  in  connection  with  the  facts  of  con- 
sciousness that  science  can  gain  acceptance.  It  must  be  based 
upon  experience ;  must  have,  for  that  which  it  would  know,  in  a 
discursive  way,  the  immediate  testimony  of  consciousness.  It 
must  be  only  the  exposition  of  faith  in  its  relation  to  the  laws 
of  nature;  or  the  application  of  the  idea  derived  from  faith,  for 
the  supplying  to  itself  of  the  concrete  view  of  being,  which  it 
can  of  itself  have  only  in  abstract  idea.  All  ideas  of  God  which 
find  no  response  in  the  religious  consciousness,  all  speculations 
which  are  in  no  way  connected  with  the  actual  life  of  man,  are 
mere  abstractions,  are  as  powerless  as  they  are  empty.  They 
contribute  little  to  the  store  of  knowledge,  and  less  to  the  de- 
terminations of  life.  Just  as  in  natural  science,  so  in  religious 
science:  if  all  that  is  derived  from  experience  be  dropped  out  of 
it,  there  is  little  left.  And  what  Lord  Bacon  brought  so  fully  to 
light  in  natural  science,  should  be  fully  accepted  in  theology — 
namely  :  that  our  science  must  begin  in  experience,  and  must  be 
based  upon  facts  given  to  us  by  revelation,  general  or  special,  or 
both;  just  as  natural  science  must  begin  with  experience,  and 
must  be  based  upon  facts  of  nature.  But  having  a  true  begin- 
ning in  reality,  and  a  solid  basis  in  facts,  the  process  of  rational 
interpretation  and  verification  can  go  successfully  on.  The  relig- 
ious idea,  therefore,  though  not  a  rational  knozvledge  of  God,  is 
yet  a  knowledge  of  divine  things  consistent  with  reason.  It  is  the 
result,  or  rather  the  manifestation,  of  the  power  of  that  relation 
of  our  being  which  of  all  others  is  the  most  fundamental  and 
vital — that  relation  to  God,  which  was  established  in  human  na- 
ture by  the  creative  hand,  and  which  could  not  be  abolished 
without  the  destruction  of  the  integrity  of  that  nature.  The 
sources  of  faith  involve  mysteries  and  are  founded  in  depths  of 
human   nature   and   its   relations,  which  can  be  expounded  and 


332  RELATIONS    OF    FAITH    AND   SCIENCE. 

sounded  by  no  mere  human  science.  They  are  discernible  and 
fathomable  only  by  the  light  of  revelation,  and  it  is  in  that  light, 
whether  given  by  general  or  special  revelation,  or  both,  that 
science  must  find  its  starting  point,  and  study  its  materials,  when 
religious  truth  is  the  subject.  In  the  religious  questions  of  life  and 
death,  of  hope  and  fear,  of  happiness  and  misery,  which  meet  us 
everywhere  and  always — no  mere  power  of  thought  can  be  a 
substitute  for  this  divine  light.  We  must  require  of  science  the 
recognition  of  the  experience  of  the  facts  thus  produced  ;  and 
while  we  accord  to  reason,  or  the  thinking  mind,  the  right  to  test 
the  contents  of  the  religious  consciousness  by  the  laws  of 
thought,  and  the  well-ascertained  laws  of  the  material  world  ; 
while  we  cheerfully  follow  it,  when  it  rises  in  its  proofs  of  the 
divine  existence  from  the  world  of  facts  into  the  sphere  of  ab- 
stract reasoning  ;  we  must  still  demand  that  its  arguments  be 
confirmed  by  the  facts  of  the  religious  life  as  they  are  mani- 
fested in  the  history  of  mankind,  as  they  are  recorded  in  the 
sacred  history  of  human  redemption  which  we  have  in  the  Bible. 
And  this  brings  us  to  the  discussion  of  Christian  faith.  Thus 
far  we  have  had  in  view  more  especially  general  religious  faith ; 
if  there  be  in  faith  an  additional  content,  it  must  be  derived  from 
special  revelation. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE  APPLICATION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  TO  THE  RELATION  OF 
REVELATION  AND  REASON,  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF 
THE    REFORMATION. 

§  I .   The  Meaning  of  Special  Divine  Revelation. 

Christian  faith  is  belief  in  the  Christian  rehgion  as  a  special 
divine  revelation.  In  the  general  sense  of  the  word,  revelation 
means  the  discovery  or  disclosure  of  that  which  was  hidden  ;  but 
in  the  religious  use  of  the  term,  it  is  limited  to  the  discovery 
which  God  makes  of  Himself  and  His  relations  to  man.  From 
the  general  revelation  or  manifestation — the  testimony  which 
God  has  given  of  Himself  in  nature  and  spirit  and  in  the  ordin- 
ary movements  of  His  providence — we  distinguish  a  special  or 
miraculous  revelation,  called  extraordinary,  supernatural,  im- 
mediate— words  which  all  involve  the  idea  of  a  miraculous 
divine  communication  to  man.  The  Christian  believ.es  that 
Christianity  is  a  realization  of  such  a  revelation.  Religion  in 
general  is  faith  in  the  manifestation  of  the  relation  of  man  to 
God — the  relation  in  which  God  placed  man  to  Himself  in  the 
first  creation  ;  Christianity  is  faith  in  the  revelation  of  the  rela- 
tion in  which  God  has  placed  Himself  to  man  in  Christ,  in 
redemption  from  sin,  in  the  second  creation.  In  Christianity, 
religious  faith  is  elevated  from  mere  general  belief  in  God  to 
specific  belief  in  God  manifested  in  Christ;  general  communion 
with  God  as  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  world,  is  raised  into  sav- 
ing communion  with  Him  as  the  Saviour  of  sinful  man  in  Christ 
— into  a  communion  of  salvation.  Referring  mainly  to  the  sin- 
ful character,  the  alienated  state  of  man — his  fall  from  God 
through  sin — Christianity  proposes  a  restoration  of  man  to  the 
blessed  communion  lost  by  the  fall,  to  communion  with  God  in 
Christ  through  faith  wrought  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  the 
religion  of  Redemption.  It  is  the  absolutely  perfect  revela- 
tion of  God. 

(333)    . 


334         RELATION  OF  REVELATION  AND  REASON. 

§  2.   Tlic  Superiority  of  Christianity  in  its  Idea  and  in  its  Effects. 

Comparative  theology  clearly  shows,  that  of  all  religions 
which  claim  to  be  a  divine  revelation,  Christianity  has  the  great- 
est, nay,  the  only  claim  to  that  character;  that  if  there  ever  has 
been  a  special  revelation  a  miraculous  communication  of  God's 
will  to  man,  we  have  that  revelation  recorded  in  the  inspired 
books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  Religion  finds  its  true 
content,  the  religious  idea  its  j^-erfect  form,  and  the  religious  life 
its  final  goal,  in  Christianity.  This  is  manifest  when  it  is  com- 
pared with  others,  in  point  of  ideal  perfection  and  in  reference  to 
the  solution  of  the  problems  of  existence  and  destiny.  When 
we  look  at  Christianity  in  the  light  of  the  principle  of  the  Refor- 
mation— of  assurance  of  salvation,  with  the  realistic  view  which 
is  involved  in  that  experience — we  fully  realize  that  only  the 
Christian  revelation  has  made  such  a  real  communion  with 
God,  realized  in  conscious  experience,  possible.  Christianity  has 
revealed  and  effected  a  real  union  between  God  and  man ;  in 
Christ  divinity  and  humanity  have  come  together  in  one  person, 
and  men  have  received  "  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  who 
are  born  not  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but 
of  God" — have  received  "exceeding  great  and  precious  prom- 
ises, whereby  they  become  partakers  of  the  divine  nature."  In 
this  communion  the  distinction  between  Creator  and  creature  is 
preserved  and  made  more  clear  to  human  consciousness,  and 
yet  the  antithesis  of  creatorship  and  creatureship  has  been  over- 
come ;  the  opposition  between  God  and  man  removed  ;  and  all 
things  reconciled  in  Christ — "  whether  they  be  things  in  earth 
or  things  in  heaven  ;"  men  in  Christ  are  changed  from  being 
mere  creatures  to  the  relation  of  children  of  God,  having  "  not 
the  spirit  of  bondage  again  to  fear,  but  the  spirit  of  adoption 
whereby  we  cry  Abba,  Father ;"  Creator  and  creature  distinct, 
yet  united ;  God  in  all,  and  over  all,  and  all  in  all — "  His  will 
done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  The  antagonism  between  the 
Holy  God  and  the  sinful  creature  is  destroyed — God  holy,  and 
man  saved ;  holiness  begun,  and  practicable  everywhere  and 
evermore. 

No  other  religion  has  this  idea  or  this  effect.  There  can,  as 
we  have  seen,  be  but  two  religions.  All  religions  that  have  any 
ideas  of  the  distinction  of  creature  and  Creator,  of  sin  and  holi- 
ness, are  either  preparations  for  Christianity  as  Judaism ;  or  cor- 


GOD   AND    MAN    DISTINCT    YET    UNITED.  335 

ruptions  of  it,  as  Mohammedanism.  The  heathen  idea  of  God 
and  the  world  either  confounded  God  and  the  world,  lost  sight 
of  all  distinction  between  them,  or  entirely  separated  God  from 
the  matter  of  the  world,  and  introduced  an  eternal  struggle  be- 
tween God  and  chaos,  between  the  divine  architect  and  the  rude 
material  of  the  world — material  so  incorrigible  that  it  could 
never  be  entirely  brought  into  order.  It  either  lost  the  creature 
in  God,  or  the  Creator  in  man.  It  could  hope  only  for  the  ab- 
sorption of  the  creature  in  God,  or  the  apotheosis  of  man — no 
union  of  God  and  man,  of  Creator  and  creature.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Christian  idea  in  the  Old  Testament  enforces  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  Creator  and  the  creature,  the  holy  God  and 
the  sinful  world,  but  prophesies  perpetually  of  the  coming  of 
God  to  man.  Its  great  theme  was  "  Behold,  He  cometh  ;" 
"Israel's  Hope,"  cometh,  not  to  absorb  or  annihilate,  but  to 
save ;  "  Immanucl,  God  with  us,"  to  be  our  God  and  Ave  His 
people — to  "  dwell  with  men."  And  in  the  New  Testament,  at 
last,  the  fulfillment,  the  heavens  open  and  the  new  song  bursts 
upon  the  earth,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth 
peace,  good  will  to  men."  In  Christ  is  the  incarnation  of 
divinity,  the  union  of  God  and  man,  of  Creator  and  creature — 
the  point  is  reached  where  creation  and  incarnation  coincide  in 
the  most  perfect  distinction  and  unity,  and  the  most  condescend- 
ing love  is  the  highest  glory ;  where  the  distinction,  though  pre- 
served— nay,  intensified — becomes  consistent  with  perfect  union 
between  the  divine  and  the  human.  God  becomes  man,  and 
humanity  is  taken  into  union  with  divinity — the  human  nature 
with  the  divine  nature,  creatureship  with  creatorship  in  the  one 
person  of  Christ.  That  which  is  distinguished  from  God  by  the 
first  creation  became  united  with  Him  by  the  second.  The 
chasm  between  the  Creator  and  creature  is  closed.  The  antith- 
esis of  being  is  not  removed  only  in  idea,  but  is  overcome  by  a 
real  synthesis  of  being.  Jesus  could  say:  "  He  that  seeth  Me 
seeth  the  Father."  The  life  of  man  becomes  the  life  of  God ; 
distinct,  yet  one  with  God's  life.  The  process  of  union  is  really 
begun,  and  is  going  on.  Eighteen  hundred  years  ago  one  could 
say :  "  I  am  crucified  yet  I  live,  nevertheless  not  I  but  Christ 
liveth  in  me,  and  the  life  that  I  now  live  I  live  by  the  faith  of 
the  Son  of  God  who  loved  me  and  gave  Himself  for  me."  And 
it  will  go  on  until  humanity  becomes  entirely  the  organ  of  God  ; 


33(3         RELATION  OF  REVELATION  AND  REASON. 

and,  with  it,  nature  is  delivered  from  bondage,  transformed  and 
glorified,  and  "  God  all  in  all." 

The  heathen  idea  had  no  origination  for  evil  and  could  have 
no  end  for  it ;  the  Christian  idea  finds  the  origination  of  sin  in 
the  moral  creature  and  has  found  the  victory  over  it  in  God  in- 
carnate, "  God  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself,  not 
imputing  their  trespasses  unto  them."  The  first  creation  made 
man  distinct  from  and  dependent  upon  God ;  the  second  makes 
the  created  distinction  a  divine  union  ;  the  absolute  dependence 
a  boundless  freedom.  He  "  in  whom  dwells  all  the  fullness  of 
the  Godhead  bodily,"  is  mediator  between  Creator  and  creature; 
the  God-man  is  the  reconciler  between  the  holy  God  and  the  sin- 
ful world — "  He  died  for  all  that  they  should  henceforth  live 
not  unto  themselves  but  unto  Him  who  died  for  them  and  rose 
again." 

If  Christianity  were  only  an  idea,  it  would  be  the  true  ideal 
of  religion  ;  it  would  be  the  only  satisfactory  solution  of  the 
^reat  problems  of  existence  and  destiny.  If  it  were  only  an 
idea,  we  might  say  that  if  ever  it  were  proper  to  die  for  an  idea, 
this  would  be  such  an  idea.  But  it  is  not  merely  an  idea,  it  is  a 
reality,  and  its  results  are  real.  And  when  we  consider  the  diffi- 
culties to  be  overcome,  and  that  it  is  a  second  creation,  and  like 
the  first  creation,  involves  a  gradual  process  contemplating  vast 
ages,  we  will  appreciate  the  living  beginning  of  it  in  the  past. 
When  compared  with  other  religions  in  its  results,  when  the 
great  change  which  it  has  produced  in  individual  and  social  life, 
in  men  and  nations ;  in  all  the  thinking,  sentiments,  and  move- 
ments of  humanity,  especially  the  new  and  exalted  idea  of  God 
and  humanity,  of  the  life  and  destiny  of  man  ;  the  new  peace 
and  life  with  which  it  has  filled  the  hearts  of  multitudes  of  be- 
lievers in  all  ages  and  in  all  conditions  ;  the  renewal  and  spirit- 
ual improvements  which  it  has  introduced  into  human  life  and 
society ;  the  great  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual  benefits  which  it 
has  bestowed  on  the  human  family  ;  the  great  intellectual  and 
moral,  and  even  physical  power,  to  which  it  has  raised  the 
nations  which  have  received  it — when  it  is  thus  considered,  the 
most  intelligent  as  well  as  the  most  skeptical  of  those  who 
reject  its  miraculous  origin — as  they  do  that  of  all  religions — 
recognize  its  incomparably  great  and  favorable  influence  upon 
mankind.     They  admit  that  if  there  be  any  supernatural  relig- 


THE    REASONABLENESS    OF    CHRISTIANITY  33/ 

ion,  Christianity  certainly  is  that  reh'gion.  They  acknowledge 
that  it  is  so  much  superior  in  excellence  and  power  that  it  is 
destined  in  the  progress  of  human  society  to  supersede  all  other 
religions,  and  that  the  accomplishment  of  this  is  a  mere  question 
of  time.  When  it  is  thus  viewed,  in  the  light  of  reason  and 
experience,  it  would  seem  from  its  intrinsic  nature  to  be  the 
realization  of  the  religious  idea,  and  from  its  peculiar  effects  to 
have  come  from  a  miraculous  source.  And  it  has  sufficient  his- 
torical evidence  to  prove  the  authenticity  of  the  sacred  books, 
the  authenticity  of  the  prophetic  and  apostolic  Scriptures. 
This  being  accomplished,  the  prophecies  and  miracles  of  the 
Scriptures  prove  that  it  is  a  special  revelation.  The  objections 
to  it  are,  in  the  first  instance,  mainly  a  priori  objections  to  the 
possibility  of  miracles.  It  is  of  importance,  therefore,  to  ex- 
amine the  source  of  these  objections. 

§  3.  TJic  Source  of  the  a  priori  Objections  to  a  Miraculous  Revelation. 

The  principal  source  of  objection  to  the  truth  of  the  Christian 
revelation,  is  not  so  much  the  idea  of  any  deficiency  in  the 
evidence  of  the  authenticity  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  as  an 
assumed  or  supposed  antecedent  incredibility  of  their  contents  as 
miracles,  as  a  miraculous  revelation  ;  but  in  proportion  as  we 
trace  the  source  of  this  incredulity  we  will  see  that  it  has  no 
sound  basis,  and  we  have,  thus,  constantly  increasing  reason  in 
the  course  of  human  thought  for  the  belief  that  all  a  priori  ob- 
jections to  the  possibility  of  revelation,  drawn  from  either  phys- 
ical or  metaphysical  science,  will,  in  due  time,  be  found  to  be 
destitute  of  any  permanent  force — will  be  found  to  be  either  an 
illegitimate  inference  of  the  science  or  the  philosophy ;  or  it 
will  be  found  that  the  science  or  the  philosophy  itself  is  unsound. 
It  will  be  found  that  they  can  be  legitimately  drawn  only  from 
those  pantheistic  or  atheistic  systems  of  thought — from  that  pure 
naturalism  which  the  common  sense  and  the  universal  con- 
science will  always  rule  out  of  the  sphere  of  religion. 

Thus,  in  the  ancient  religious  world,  before  the  Pantheistic 
idea,  which  really  underlies  all  heathen  religions,  was  wrought 
out  into  a  system  of  conscious  thought,  before  it  was  developed 
scientifically — and  when  men  in  heathendom  as  well  as  Chris- 
tendom were  guided  mainly  by  the  dictates  of  common  con- 
sciousness, and  generally  acted  in  the  immediate  light  of  the 
22 


338  RELATION    OF    REVELATIOxX    AND    REASO> 

intuitions  of  the  sense  and  the  insights  of  the   reason,  were  in- 
fluenced mainly  by  their  natural  sense  of  things — there  were  no 
such  a  priori  objections  to  the  possibility  of  miracles — of  special 
revelations.     "  That  age,"  says  Dr.  Shedd,  "  referred  everything 
to  God,  because   its   religious   consciousness  was  of  that  warm, 
glowing  character  which    is    disinclined    to    distinguish    in   a 
scientific  manner,  what  proceeds  from  a  supernatural  and  what 
from  a  natural  source.     All  truth,  provided  it  was  truth,  was 
conceived  as  coming  from  God,  in  some  form  or  other."     The 
enemies  of  Christianity  were  not  influenced  by  any  idea  of  a  ne- 
cessary impossibility,  or  even  improbability  of  miracles.     When 
they  could   not   deny  the  historical  evidence  of  the  miraculous 
acts  of  Christ,  they  did  not  attempt  to  reject  them  on  the  ground 
of  the  antecedent  impossibility  of  such  acts — on  the  ground  of 
a  violent  incredibility  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case — but  they 
tried  to  evade  their  claim  upon  their  faith,  not  by  denying  their 
supernatural  origin,  but  by  ascribing  them  to  evil  supernatural 
influences.     It  was  only  after  the  natural  had  been  more  clearly 
distinguished  from  the  supernatural,  that  the. source  of  the  objec- 
tion to  the  possibility  of  miracles  was  opened.     When,  on  the 
one  hand,  under  the  influence  of  Cliristianity  tlie  distinction  be- 
tween the  natural  and  the  supernatural  came   to  be  more  clearly 
recognized,  and,  on  the  other,  by  the  labors  of  natural  science  the 
uniformity  of  nature's  laws  began  to  be  proved,  then  a  view  of 
the  universe  was  introduced,  which  fostered  the  idea  of  the  im- 
possibility of  miracles.      Only  one  side  of  the  Christian  idea  has 
been   fully  incorporated  with  the   course   of   modern  thought ; 
only  the  distinction  of  the  supernatural  and  the  natural,  and  not 
their  inseparability  has  been  fully  appropriated  ;  and,  thus,  Deism 
and  not  Theism  was  the   result.     The   difficulty  will   continue 
until  the  Christian  idea — namely  the  idea  that  God  though  dis- 
tinct from  the  world  is  not  separate  from  it ;  that  though  trans- 
cendent to  it,  He  is  immanent  in  it — is  fully  appropriated;  until 
men  see  clearly  that  there  are  but  two  ideas  of  God  and  the  zvorld 
possible,  the  Pantheistic,  which  is  the  idea  that  necessarily  springs 
from  heathenism  when   scientifically  developed,  and    the  Theistic, 
which  with  equal  necessity  is  evolved  out  of  Christianity — an  in- 
tuition inseparable  from    the  experience  of   its    saving    power. 
When  this  is  fully  recognized,  and  the  irreconcilableness  of  the 
antagonism  of  these  ideas  is  acknowledged ;  when  it  is  seen  that 


THE   APPROPRIATION    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEA.  339 

the  issue  is  clearly  between  Pantheism  and  Theism,  naturalism 
and  Christianity;  that  there  is  no  medium,  no  neutral  ground  be- 
tween them,  then  will  the  question  have  come  to  be  more  a 
question  of  the  will  than  of  the  intellect,  and  the  claims  of  Christi- 
anity will  be  felt  by  all  sincere  and  earnest  souls — by  all  who  fol- 
low the  dictates  of  consciousness,  who  long  for  a  solution  of  the 
problem  of  existence  and  destiny,  who  strive  for  deliverance 
from  the  condemnation  and  pollution  of  sin,  and  yearn  after 
rest  in  God.  For  a  sincere  disposition  for  truth  will  necessarily 
in  this  alternative  prefer  faith  to  unbelief  As  long  as  the  uni- 
formity of  natural  law  was  not  discovered  the  pantheistic  idea 
of  the  ivunanciicc  of  God  would  not  be  in  conflict  with  the  idea 
of  the  possibility  of  miraculous  revelation.  But  after  this  dis- 
covery, the  transcendence  as  well  as  the  immanence  must  be 
maintained,  or  the  idea  of  a  miracle  becomes  an  absurdity. 
Heathen  philosophy,  that  is,  pantheism,  must  now  be  met  by  a 
higher  philosophy,  the  Christian  philosophy,  the  world-view 
which  is  developed  in  the  light  of  Christianity — true  theism. 
All  forms  of  thought  inconsistent  with  this  "  New  Wisdom  " 
must  be  traced  to  their  source  in  the  heathen  idea  of  God  and 
the  world,  and  then  they  will  be  abandoned  by  all  sincere  seek- 
ers after  spiritual  truth  and  peace — truth  that  shall  be  satisfactory 
to  man  in  his  present  wants  and  his  future  hopes  and  fears. 
And  this  will  be  done  just  in  proportion  to  the  appropriation  of 
the  principle  of  the  Reformation  in  all  its  bearings — in  propor- 
tion as  men  seek  that  certainty  of  truth  and  that  assurance  of 
salvation  which  can  come  only  from  the  fact  of  justification  by 
faith  in  Christ  alone,  and  which  do  come  into  the  experience  of 
all  who  yield  to  the  power  of  the  gospel  and  the  testimony  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  which  accompanies  it.  Christianity  is  a  reality, 
a  life,  a  great  fact  in  the  world's  history,  and,  like  all  other  great 
realities  and  facts,  it  involves  ideas  which  are  inseparaoie  from 
the  experience  of  them,  and  which  will  necessarily  be,  in  due 
time,  evolved  out  of  that  experience.  Thus  has  the  Christian 
idea  been  evolved  out  of  the  experience  of  man  under  the  light 
of  the  Bible.  And  we  shall  endeavor  to  make  as  clear  as  possi- 
ble its  antagonism  to  the  naturalism  of  the  day,  which  is  only 
the  true  evolution  and  the  scientific  form  of  the  old  heathen 
idea — to  show  that  men  cannot  consistently  reject  the  claims  of 
supernaturalism  unless  they  are  prepared  to  adopt  a  purely  nat- 


340         RELATION  OF  REVELATION  AND  REASON. 

urallstic  system.  Let  us  then  notice  the  several  objections  to 
the  possibihty  of  special,  miraculous  revelation  in  the  various 
foripis  in  which  they  are  presented,  and  endeavor  to  show  that 
no  theory,  except  pure  natiiralisin  can  consistently  make  them. 

§  4.  It  cannot  be  Done  Consistently  Merely  on  the  Ground  of 
"  Second  Causes." 

The  idea  of  the  impossibility  of  miracles  prevailed  first  in 
modern  times  in  connection  with  what  has  sometimes  been 
called  a  mechanical  theory  of  the  universe.  It  was  supposed  to 
be  a  discovery  of  philosoph}^  that  God  had  once  acted  immedi- 
ately, and  only  once,  namely,  in  the  creation  of  the  world. 
After  this  His  activity  ceased  to  be  immediate,  and  all  things 
proceeded  from  a  causal  nexus  of  things,  of  forces  of  matter 
and  mind  originally  introduced  in  the  very  act  of  creation.  The 
"  first  cause  "  has  ceased  to  act,  and  all  things  proceed  accord- 
ing to  "second  causes."  All  subsequent  immediate  influence 
of  God,  according  to  this  view  of  the  world,  is  to  be  held  im- 
possible; such  as  immediate  government,  special  providence, 
miracles — whether  miracles  of  knowledge,  or  of  power,  miracu- 
lous inspiration  in  the  mind  or  miraculous  control  over  matter, 
whether  the  Incarnation  of  Divinity  in  the  conception  of  Christ, 
or  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  founding  of  the 
Church  at  Pentecost — in  short  the  miraculous  revelation  which 
Christianity  claims  to  be. 

Now,  this  view  of  the  universe  which  includes  all  existences 
in  the  linked  chain  of  cause  and  effect,  is  as  inconsistent  with 
the  common  consciousness  of  men  as  it  is  with  the  Christian 
idea  of  God  and  the  world.  For  if  this  uniformity  of  nature  be 
referred  to  the  wisdom  of  God,  then,  as  it  results  not  from 
necessity  but  from  will,  the  inference  drawn  from  it  is  unreason- 
able. For  then  it  depends  on  the  counsel  of  that  free  will,  and 
not  upon  anything  in  the  nature  of  things,  how  it  will  act.  If  it 
be  ascribed  to  mere  habit,  to  a  merely  confirmed,-  habitual,  natural 
selection,  then  we  are  on  naturalistic  ground,  and  we  shut  out 
immediate  divine  action,  as  well  from  the  origination  of  the 
causal  nexus,  as  we  do  from  its  operations.  The  entire  distinc- 
tion upon  which  the  theory  is  based — the  distinction  between 
mediate  and  immediate,  natural  and  supernatural — when  applied 
to  divine  action,  is  merely  subjective,  is  only  our  conception  of 


THE   TRUE    DISTINCTION    IN    THE    DIVINE    ACTION.  34 1 

God  as  acting  in  different  ways  ;  and  to  have  objective  validity,  it 
would  be  reduced  to  that  of  the  difference  between  ordinary  and 
extraordinary  acts  of  God.  All  divine  action  must  be  immediate 
and  supernatural.  The  fact  that  some  of  His  operations  are  con- 
nected with  the  instrumentality  of  "second  causes,"  of  the  forces 
of  nature  or  the  agency  of  the  human  mind,  does  not  make  them 
the  less  immediate  and  supernatural.  Thus,  for  example,  sup- 
pose for  a  moment  that  we  had  had  our  experience  in  a  previous 
and  different  course  of  things — a  different  causal  nexus — -from 
that  of  the  world  now  existing,  and  had  then  become  spectators 
of  the  causal  nexus  in  which  we  now  live,  then  the  former 
course  of  things  would  have  been  to  us  the  natural  and  mediate, 
and  the  divine  act  producing  and  sustaining  the  latter,  the  super- 
natural and  immediate.  Thus  we  see  that  these  terms,  to  have 
any  objective  significance,  must  be  regarded  as  expressing  only 
our  ideas  of  the  commonness  or  uncommonness  of  the  different 
acts  of  God — the  one,  the  miraculous  act  by  which  something 
entirely  new  is  originated;  and  the  other,  the  acts  performed  in 
connection  with,  and  through  the  instrumentality  of,  that  which 
had  already  been  brought  into  existence.  But  in  both  cases  the 
acts  are  equally  immediate  and  supernatural.  In  the  one  case 
He  acts  unconditionally;  in  the  other,  conditionally — that  is,  He 
has  respect  to  the  work  of  His  own  hand,  does  not  destroy  by 
one  act  what  He  has  produced  by  another.  In  the  one  case  His 
action  is  unlimited  ;  in  the  other.  He  limits  His  action  by  the 
existence  which  He  has  already  produced.  In  the  one  case  He 
exercises  all  power;  in  the  other.  He  permits  the  exercise  of 
power  by  the  creature — allows  the  use  of  power  derived  from 
Him — but  in  both  cases  His  acts  are  alike,  so  far  as  any  dis- 
tinction of  natural  and  supernatural,  mediate  or  immediate,  is 
concerned — all  equally  supernatural  and  immediate.  The  Chris- 
tian idea  includes  both  these  kinds  of  action.  The  Bible  recog- 
nizes both,  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  especially  in  the  New.  In 
the  Mosaic  account  of  creation,  by  the  distinction  of  the  acts 
introducing  each  new  day,  from  the  acts  in  the  intervals  of  the 
development  of  what  in  each  had  been  produced,  we  have  the 
divine  action  not  only  producing  the  earth,  but  letting  "  the 
earth  bring  forth  grass,  the  herb  yielding  seed,  and  the  fruit-tree 
yielding  fruit  after  his  kind,  whose  seed  is  in  itself  upon  the 
earth,"  but  this  divine  action  is  equally  immediate  and  super- 


342         RELATION  OF  REVELATION  AND  REASON. 

natural  in  both  cases.  So  in  the  New  Testament  there  is  the 
recognition  of  both,  in  the  introduction  of  the  new  life  and  its 
development,  in  the  connection  of  the  idea  of  origination  with 
that  of  organism — of  natural  development — in  its  doctrine  of 
seed  and  growth,  of  the  sowing  of  the  seed,  and  its  germination, 
the  putting  of  the  leaven  into  the  meal,  and  the  fermentation, 
the  planting  of  the  mustard-seed,  and  its  development  into  the 
tree.  Heathenism  knows  only  evolution;  many  Christians,  per- 
haps, too  often  think  only  of  creation  ;  the  true  idea  recognizes 
both,  and  keeps  them  connected  in  one  view  of  the  divine  action, 
as  distinguished,  indeed,  into  common  and  uncommon,  frequent 
and  infrequent,  ordinary  and  extraordinary,  usual  and  miracu- 
lous, but  all  equally  supernatural  and  immediate.  The  creative 
or  extraordinaiy  contemplates  the  ordinary  or  usual — the  devel- 
opment of  its  results.  Creation,  being  an  intelligent  act,  an  act 
in  view  of  an  end,  must  allow  the  action  of  the  thing  created  in 
the  course  of  its  development — -the  attainment  of  the  goal  for 
which  it  was  made.  Perhaps  the  distinction  would  be  most 
clearly  expressed  by  the  terms,  limited  and  unlimited  action — 
action  in  which  God  limits  Himself  in  the  exercise  of  His 
power  by  the  wise  purpose,  with  which  He  has  given  the  crea- 
ture real  power — though  derived  power — and  action  in  which 
He  does  not  limit  Himself  And  this  divine  capacity  of  self- 
limitation,  this  power  of  self-control,  this  personal  character,  this 
positive  idea  of  the  absolute,  is  the  very  point  in  which  the 
Christian  idea  and  Pantheism,  or  the  heathen  idea,  came  into 
irreconcilable  antagonism.  There  is,  consequently,  no  room 
for  any  such  distinctions,  as  mediate  or  immediate,  natural  and 
supernatural,  in  the  acts  of  God;  and  the  objector  is  inconsist- 
ent, until  he  plant  himself  on  the  ground  of  pure  naturalism  and 
deny  all  immediate  action  of  God  in  the  creation,  as  well  as  the 
course  of  the  world,  and  this  will  be  to  deny  all  divine  action, 
as  all  such  action  must  be  immediate.  The  question  of  mir- 
acles therefore  in  the  last  instance,  is  the  question  of  divine 
personality  or  impersonality  of  Theism  or  Pantheism,  of  Christi- 
anity or  Atheism. 

If,  by  natural  and  mediate  acts  were  meant  any  influence  in- 
dependent of  God — "  second  causes"  exclusive  of  the  action  of 
the  first  cause — it  would  effectually  shut  him  out  from  the 
world ;  and,  thus,  destroy  the  very  idea  of  creation ;    it  would 


TRUE    CHRISTIANITY    OR    PURE    NATURALISM.  343 

make  something  exist  independently  of  God  and,  consequently, 
before  creation,  like  the  chaos — the  eternal  material  of  the 
heathen — yea  it  would  destroy  the  idea  of  God  Himself  as  the 
all-comprehending  absolute  personality,  which  this  philosophy 
still  professes  to  hold  Him  to  be.  Besides,  none  but  the  thor- 
oughly naturalistic  Pantheist  or  Atheist,  can,  consistently,  deny 
that  there  is  a  moral  world  in  which  the  highest  law  is  freedom, 
and  in  which  consequently,  there  can  be  no  such  connection  of 
cause  and  effect,  as  this  theory  conceives  for  the  natural  world. 
From  this  admission  a  man  is  obliged  to  conclude  either  that 
God  does  not  act  at  all  in  the  moral  world  or  that  He  acts  imme- 
diately upon  it ;  and  as  the  former  cannot  be  true  the  latter 
must  be  received,  or  we  cease  to  believe  in  a  personal  Gol,  in  a 
Creator ;  and  are  Pantheists  or  Atheists. 

No  theory  of  the  universe,  therefore,  can  consistently  deny  the 
possibility  of  a  Miraculous  Revelation,  except  the  purely  natural- 
istic. An  effect  is  possible  the  idea  of  which  is  consistent  with 
the  idea  of  its  cause.  Revelation  is  possible  if  the  idea  of  it  be 
not  in  contradiction  with  the  idea  of  God.  But  this  can  be  con- 
sistently asserted  only  on  the  ground  of  the  world-view  of 
the  thorough  naturalist.  He  that  would  maintain  the  impossi- 
bility of  miraculous  revelation  must  show  from  the  idea  of  God's 
attributes  and  His  relations  to  the  world,  that  He  cannot,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  general  revelation,  give  a  special  one.  But  no  sys- 
tem which  stops  short  of  the  merest  naturalism  can  consistently 
attempt  this.  We  think  this  can  be  shown  in  all  the  particular 
systems  of  this  kind. 

§  5 .  This  Attempt  cannot  be  Consistently  Made  by  Deistic  Ration- 
alism, and.  Consequently,  the  Deist's  Objection  to  the  Possibility 
of  Miracles  is  Groundless. 

The  Deistic  Rationalism  cannot  do  it.  For  while  it  denies  the 
possibility  of  miracles  on  cosinological  grounds,  it  involves  the 
idea  of  miraculous,  antemundane,  divine  action.  While  it 
maintains  the  immutability  of  natural  laws,  it  admits  that  these 
laws  had  a  beginning,  that  they  are  not  a  system  eternally  exist- 
ing and  complete  from  eternity.  It  teaches  that  the  world  had 
a  beginning  and  that  its  origination  is  an  act  of  creation  and 
consequently  a  miracle.  But  having  admitted  a  miracle  in  the 
origination   it  cannot   consistently  shut  out  miracles    from    its 


344         RELATION  OF  REVELATION  AND  REASON. 

course.  To  stop  short  with  this  miracle  is  unphilosophical ;  for 
it  supposes  nature  to  be  necessarily  so  complete  that  it  shuts 
out  all  miraculous  divine  action.  But  this  must  rest  on  the 
idea  that  nature  is  complete  from  eternity  as  well  as  to  eternity, 
or  it  is  groundless.  And  to  concede  this  is  pure  naturalism — 
pantheistic  atheism.  If  nature  is  not  complete,  from  eternity, 
if  it  has  a  teleological  course,  if  it  originated  from  will,  from 
conscious,  wise  counsel,  then  it  may  admit  additions — a  super- 
induction  of  new  forces  and  new  laws — without  violence  to  its 
original  constitution  ;  higher  forces  and  laws  may  be  added 
without  the  destruction  of  the  existence  or  uniformity  of  the 
action  of  the  lower ;  a  second  creation  may  take  place  with- 
out destroying  the  first,  yea,  may  be  introduced  to  complete 
the  first.  The  favorite  representation  of  the  system  is,  that  the 
world,  like  a  clock  which  once  made  and  wound  up  runs  of 
itself,  goes  on  in  a  changeless  course  evermore.  But  even 
this  supposed  relation  of  God  to  His  work,  like  that  of  an  artist 
to  the  machine  which  he  has  constructed,  does  not  present  an 
inseparable  objection  to  the  idea  of  possible  or  of  even  probable 
interpositions.  If  a  human  artist  could  foresee,  while  he  was 
constructing  a  clock,  which  should  be  capable,  when  wound  up, 
of  running  a  hundred  years,  that  at  particular  periods  of  that 
time,  say  at  the  end  of  the  first  quarter,  and  then  again  at  the 
second,  or  at  any  interval,  the  clock  would  need  additional  force 
or  forces,  which  were  not  necessary  in  the  preceding  period,  but 
would  now  be  necessary  to  obviate  a  defect  which  would  now, 
for  the  first  time,  hinder  its  course  ;  or  to  secure  an  improvement 
which  would  now,  first,  become  practicable, — it  is  certainly  con- 
ceivable, that  it  would  be  consistent  with  the  highest  wisdom  in 
the  artist  to  consider  it  better  to  superinduce  the  new  force, 
when  the  obviating  of  the  defect,  or  the  securing  of  the  im- 
provement, for  the  first  time,  demanded  it.  This  would  certainly 
be  as  reasonable  as  to  put  it  into  the  original  construction,  and 
let  it  lie  dormant  or  latent  during  all  the  years  when  it  was  not 
needed,  even  if  this  were  possible.  And  so  it  is  conceivable  that 
God,  v.'ho  by  the  assumption  of  the  deist,  created  the  world  in 
wisdom,  might  also  in  wisdom,  from  time  to  time,  make  addi- 
tions, in  the  way  of  new  creations,  that  is,  miracles  ;  and  the 
more  so,  in  the  latter  case,  as  God  is  certain  of  the  continuance 
of  His  existence  and  of  His  power  to  superintend  the  thing 


INCONSISTENCY    OF    RATIONALISTIC    OBJECTIONS.  345 

which  He  constructs  during  the  entire  period  of  its  being,  which 
is  not  the  case  with  the  human  artist.  In  addition  to  this,  is 
the  fact  that  the  continuance  of  the  existence  of  the  material, 
as  well  as  the  structure,  or  form,  of  the  world  is  from  Him.  If 
the  deist  ignore  this  fact  he  denies  creation  in  the  strict  sense 
and  is  on  pantheistic,  naturalistic,  atheistic  ground.  The  world 
can  never  be  separated  from  God's  supporting  hand  during  any 
moment  of  its  existence,  can  never  be  independent  of  Him,  as 
is  the  case  with  the  clock  in  relation  to  the  artist  who  has  con- 
structed it.  To  deny  this  dependence  of  the  world  upon  God 
would  be  to  conceive  it,  as  the  matter  of  the  atheistic  materialist 
which  excludes  all  spirit ;  or  as  the  unconscious  mind  of  the 
absolute  idealist  which  shuts  out  all  creative  origination  ;  or  the 
eternal  evil  principle  of  the  dualist ;  in  short  would  be  to  make 
it  another  God.  There  is  therefore  no  room  for  Deistic  ration- 
alism. 

§  6.  Theistic  Rationalism  is  still  more  Inconsistent  in  its  Objection 
to  the  Possibility  of  a  Miraatlous  Revelatioji. 

The  Theistic  rationalist  finds  nothing  on  cosmological  grounds 
inconsistent  with  a  special  or  miraculous  revelation.  He  bases 
his  objections  entirely  on  theological  and  anthropological  grounds. 
He  admits  a  general  divine  providence  over  the  world,  and  a 
general  revelation  of  God  in  the  movements  of  nature,  in  the 
history  of  man.  He  admits  that  God  is  carrying  on  a  process 
of  the  education  of  man  for  an  immortal  destiny,  and  though 
he  includes  Christianity  in  this  general  revelation,  he  admits  that 
it  is  a  new  source  of  spiritual  life  to  man.  But  his  admissions 
as  a  Theist  are  fatal  to  his  objections. 

He  says,  indeed,  that  God  has  so  made  us,  that  we  are 
obliged  by  the  very  laws  of  our  being,  to  make  reason  the  final 
appeal  in  all  our  inquiries  respecting  the  ground  of  religious  be- 
lief; and  that,  consequently,  it  is  inconsistent  with  His  wisdom 
and  goodness,  to  suppose  that  He  would  require  the  human 
mind  to  yield  itself  a  captive  to  a  miraculous  communication  of 
knowledge,  to  render  obedience  to  a  special  revelation  ;  that  is, 
to  submit  to  any  claims  the  reasons  of  which  the  mind  cannot 
apprehend.  Now  it  is  true  that  it  results  from  the  very  consti- 
tution which  God  has  given  us  that  we  cannot  believe  anything 
which  is  contradictory  to  reason ;  but  it  does  not  follow  from 


346         RELATION  OF  REVELATION  AND  REASON. 

this  that  religious  truths  may  not  transcend  reason.  The  Crea- 
tor has  not  only  made  reason  supreme  in  its  own  province  ;  but 
he  has  also  set  bounds  to  the  extent  of  its  dominion.  And  even 
in  its  own  domain  it  finds  much  that  is  beyond  its  reach  ;  and  it 
submits  to  the  truth  of  much  which  transcends  its  power  of 
discernment  and  exposition.  Its  science  has  never  penetrated 
into  the  inner  essence  of  things,  never  comprehended  the  primal 
nature  and  origin  of  the  world ;  how  then  can  she  claim  that  it 
can  sound  the  depths  of  the  divine  nature,  comprehend  the  pos- 
sibilities of  His  will,  and  expound  the  mysteries  of  His  ways  ? 
Her  science  has  left  multitudes  of  the  phenomena  of  external 
nature  and  of  the  events  of  human  history  unexplained,  and  yet 
she  does  not  dispute  their  reality.  If,  therefore,  the  inquiring 
mind  can  rationally,  when  its  own  ideas  fail,  yield  itself  a  cap- 
tive to  experience,  and  does  not  in  this  surrender  its  relative 
rights,  but  only  subordinates  itself  to  the  higher  reason  involved 
in  general  revelation — if  this  hold  good  in  the  sphere  of  science 
in  which  reason  is  indisputably  supreme — how  much  more  must 
it  hold  in  the  sphere  of  religion,  in  regard  to  which  we  have 
seen  that  it  exists  independently  of  science,  presenting  to  it  all 
the  limits  imposed  by  experience  in  life,  and  reaching  in  its  faith- 
content  into  a  world  of  being,  where  science  has  no  ground  for 
exact  investigation — extending  to  "  Him  who  dwelleth  in  light 
into  which  no  man  can  approach."  It  is  certainly  conceivable 
that  the  eternal  reason — which,  according  to  the  theistic  rational- 
ist's own  idea,  not  only  created  the  world  and  manifested  itself 
in  general  in  its  forms  and  movements,  but  transcends  the  human 
reason  even  in  this  creation  and  providence, — could  give  a 
special  revelation,  which  should  transcend  the  reach  of  all  sci- 
ence, without  interfering  with  the  supremacy  of  reason  in  its 
own  domain.  But  if  this  be  so,  then,  the  submission  required 
in  a  special  revelation,  is  only  subjection  of  a  lower  form  of 
reason  to  a  higher — of  the  finite  to  the  infinite  reason.  Though 
reason  has  in  nature  a  source  of  divine  knowledge,  it  does  not 
follow  that  this  is  the  only  source  of  the  recognition  of  God 
and  of  the  apprehension  of  His  ways.  Indeed  the  theistic 
rationalist,  by  receiving  a  general  revelation,  admits  a  source  of 
knowledge  which  is  supernatural — a  new  source  of  knowledge  ; 
and  though  He  includes  Christianity  in  general  revelation.  He 
admits  that  it  is  a  new  source  of  power  in  that  manifestation  of 


NEW    SOURCE    OF    KNOWLEDGE   AS    WELL   AS    OF    LIFE.        347 

God,  and  consequently  he  cannot  consistently  deny  that  it 
must  be  a  source  of  new  knowledge — knowledge  transcending 
reason.  Indeed,  in  denying  that  there  can  be  a  new  source  of 
knowledge — a  source  other  than  mere  general  reason;  while  he 
admits  such  a  source  of  power  different  from,  and  additional  to, 
universal  nature  in  his  acceptance  of  general  revelation — the 
rationalist  abandons  the  ground  of  theism  and  places  himself  upon 
that  of  the  naturalist.  The  rationalist  ceases  to  be  a  theist,  and 
becomes  either  an  atheist  or  pantheistic  naturalist.  In  the  lan- 
guage of  Martensen,  "  denying  that  a  new  source  of  knowledge 
has  been  opened  in  Christ,  rationalism  must  also  deny  that  in 
Christ  a  new  source  of  life  is  opened,  different  from  all  other 
sources  of  life  in  creation.  If,  however,  it  is  certain  that  in 
Christ  a  new  source  of  life  is  opened,  then  there  must  have  been 
also  a  new  source  of  knowledge  opened ;  a  realm  of  divine 
counsels  hitherto  hidden ;  a  realm  of  new  cognitions,  which 
cannot  be  explained  as  the  product  of  a  development  of  reason. 
But  these  by  no  means  conflict  with  the  universal  cognitions  of 
human  reason,  although  they  always  modify  them.  For,  on  the 
one  hand,  they  serve  to  fill  up  and  complete  the  rational  cogni- 
tions ;  on  the  other,  they  serve  to  free  the  universal  human 
reason  from  the  darkness  with  which  universal  sinfulness  has 
infected  it. 

"To  suppose  that  this  implies  an  insoluble  dualism  in  the 
realm  of  knowledge  is  as  incorrect  as  to  suppose  that  in  the 
system  of  the  universe  the  two  creations  imply  an  insoluble 
duality.  For.  as  there  is  but  one  system  of  creation,  though  in 
this  there  are  two  grand  stages,  so  there  is  also  one  system  of 
reason,  although  herein  are  involved  two  degrees  of  the  revela- 
tion of  reason.  Objectively  considered,  the  unity  lies  in  the 
fact  that  it  is  the  same  Logos  that  reveals  Himself  in  both 
creations  ;  but  the  revelation  of  the  Logos  in  Christ  is  a  higher 
degree  of  revelation,  differing  from  the  universal  revelation  in 
that  it  is  revelation  which  completes  and  redeems  the  world ; 
whereas  the  other  merely  creates  and  preserves.  Subjectively 
considered,  the  unity  is  found  in  the  fact,  that  the  human  reason 
stands  in  a  receptive  relation  towards  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  as  the 
Spirit  that  completes  and  redeems  the  world ;  a  receptivity 
through  which  reason  is  to  be  raised  to  a  higher  stage  of  pro- 
ductivity." 


348         RELATION  OF  REVELATION  AND  REASON. 

But  the  Theistic  rationalist,  while  he  admits  that  there  is  a 
general  revelation,  and  that  the  hand  of  God  may  be  seen  in  na- 
ture and  providence,  objects  to  the  possibility  of  special  revela- 
tion, just  because  it  is  special — on  the  ground  of  the  fact  that 
Christianity,  for  example,  has  not  reached  the  whole  human 
family.  The  special  revelation,  which  Christianity  claims  to  be, 
he  objects,  is  the  religion  of  only  a  comparatively  small  part  of 
the  human  race;  and  as  other  religions  which  also  lay  claim  to 
revelation  are  in  conflict  with  it,  it  in  common  with  all  pre- 
tended special  revelations,  must  be  brought  to  the  bar  of  reason 
and  rejected  as  a  miraculous  revelation.  But  when  he  thus 
refers  to  the  nations  without  Christ,  he  overlooks  the  fact  that 
the  Christian  nations  have,  in  common,  Theistic  views — while 
Pantheistic  ideas  underlie  the  religions  of  all  the  heathen — views 
which  he  himself  holds,  and  which  are  so  utterly  antagonistic  to 
the  heathen  ideas,  that  when  it  is  asked  "  who  maketh  thee  to 
differ?"  the  most  probable  answer  is  a  special  revelation. 
Besides  the  condition  of  those  nations  without  Christianity  goes 
far  to  invalidate  that  supremacy  of  reason,  which  he  claims  for 
the  development  of  humanity,  and  for  the  work  of  human  cul- 
ture ;  and  the  claims  of  these  several  religions  to  special  revela- 
tion, is  evidence  of  the  universal  feeling,  in  the  human  mind,  of 
the  necessity  of  special  divine  interposition,  of  the  reality  of  a 
special  revelation  existing  somewhere.  And  Christianity  is  cer- 
tainly the  religion  which  has  the  strongest  claim  to  be  that  special 
revelation..  Indeed  the  fact  that  three-fourths  of  mankind  hold 
views  in  religion,  which  he  considers  erroneous,  and  more  than 
one-half,  ideas  the  very  opposite  of  those,  which  he  holds  to  be 
the  rational  views  of  the  universe,  should  convince  him  that  by 
far  the  greater  part  of  mankind  are,  at  least,  incapable  of  mak- 
ing a  successful  use  of  this  supremacy  of  reason,  and  need  to 
be  guided  not  by  science  alone,  but  mainly  by  experience,  and 
generally  by  positive  authority.  Nay,  every  page  of  the  history 
even  of  the  philosophical  world,  will  show  him,  that  not  only 
the  ignorant  multitude,  but  even  the  intelligent  minds,  are  de- 
pendent upon  special  revelation  for  the  Theistic  views,  which  he 
considers  so  important.  For — not  to  speak  of  the  superstitious 
heathen — even  Christendom  exhibits  the  sad  spectacle  of  men 
who  are  capable  of  ascending  the  very  pinnacle  of  thought  in 
scientific  reasoning,  and  yet  find  no  personal  God,  and  no  con- 


REVELATION    AS    NECESSARY   AS    DESIRABLE.  349 

scious  immortality  to  believe  in.  What  multitudes  of  scientists, 
even  in  Christian  lands  and  in  our  times,  are  Atheists,  because 
they  can  neither  discern  God  in  the  heavens  with  the  telescope, 
nor  demonstrate  His  existence  in  the  world  with  the  understand- 
ing !  As  the  claim  of  Christianity  to  be  a  special  revelation,  is 
so  closely  connected  with  the  preservation  of  the  Theistic  view 
— the  true  idea  of  God — he  should  regard  the  protection  which 
it  affords  and  the  authority  which  it  gives  to  the  belief  in  God, 
a  strong  proof  of  its  consistency  with  reason.  As  the  only  sat- 
isfactory explanation  of  the  longing  of  the  heart  for  rest  in  God, 
and  the  yearning  of  the  soul  after  personal  immortality,  it  is 
most  desirable,  and,  consequently,  in  the  light  of  these  facts, 
it  is  certainly  not  unreasonable. 

Finally,  on  Theistic  grounds  a  revelation  is  not  only  desirable, 
but  necessary.  If  God  be  a  personal  being,  then  in  creating  the 
world,  as  it  was  not  necessary  for  the  revelation  of  Himself  to 
Himself,  it  must  have  been  to  reveal  Himself  through  the  creation 
to  the  creature.  We,  consequently,  are  moral  beings — a  mere 
brute  world  could  not  know  Him,  and  could  not  be  the  object 
of  His  love ;  nor  could  it  reciprocate  His  love.  This  involves 
communion  with  God;  he  cannot  separate  Himself  from  the 
creature — the  moral  creature.  He  must  guide  it  to  the  end  for 
which  He  made  it.  If  we  believe  in  creation  in  the  strict  sense, 
then  sin  is  not  in  the  nature  of  things.  It  could  not  be 
introduced  by  the  impersonal  world  of  nature;  nor  can  it  be  as- 
cribed to  the  creative  hand  of  God.  It  must  result  from  the  free 
action  of  moral  creatures.  Now  we  are  sinners,  and  God  is 
holy,  and  He  will  maintain  the  harmony  of  the  universe.  His  own 
world-order ;  and  if  we  are  to  have  any  well-grounded  hope  of 
deliverance  from  the  condemnation  and  pollution  of  sin — of  at- 
taining the  true  goal  of  our  being — God  must  give  us  a  revela- 
tion. We  could  not,  otherwise,  know  how  God  would  act 
toward  us  in  view  of  our  guilt.  We  could  expect  or  know 
nothing  with  certainty  and  satisfaction.  We  are  in  a  state  of 
ruin  through  sin,  from  which  reason  could  point  out  no  certain 
way  of  deliverance.  If  humanity  has  fallen  from  God,  then  a 
special  revelation  from  Him  is  not  only  conceivable,  as  consist- 
ent with  reason,  but,  as  absolutely  necessary.  Now  the  Theistic 
rationalist  admits  creation  in  the  strict  sense,  and  he  recognizes 
sin  as  sin,  as  originating  in  the  moral  creature,  and,  consequently, 


350  RELATION    OF    REVELATION    AND    REASON. 

involving  guilt ;  and  this,  his  Theistic  theory  of  the  world,  cer- 
tainly would,  in  view  of  the  creatureship  of  man,  make  revela- 
tion in  a  high  degree  probable,  and  in  consequence  of  sin, 
absolutely  necessary  to  his  comfort  and  hope.  And  it  would 
be,  in  some  degree,  morally  certain.  While  we  cannot  say  that 
there  is  any  necessity,  physical,  metaphysical  or  logical,  of  a 
revelation — as  we  cannot  say  that  creation  itself  was  necessary 
— we  can  say  that,  as  there  was  in  the  love  of  God  eternally  the 
moral  certainty  that  He  would  create ;  so,  in  the  case  of  sin 
having  come  into  the  world,  though  there  would  be  no  necessity 
with  God  to  interfere  in  behalf  of  sinful  man  and  to  reveal 
a  special  scheme  of  redemption,  there  would  be  conceivable  a 
moral  certainty  of  it  with  Hiui,  and  an  absolute  necessity  of  it 
with  us.  Thus  does  revelation  become  probable,  yea,  in  view  of 
the  fact  of  sin,  necessary. 

§  7.   TJie  Issue  is  Betiveen  Christian   Theism  and  Atheistic 
Naturalism. 

There  is  no  longer  any  room  for  rationalism,  either  in  its 
deistic  or  theistic  form ;  pure  naturalism  occupies  the  entire 
ground  of  consistent  opposition  to  the  possibility  of  a  miracu- 
lous revelation.  Objections  of  an  a  priori  kind,  can  be  con- 
sistently made  only  on  purely  naturalistic  grounds.  As  natur- 
alism resolves  all  divine  life  and  action  into  the  being  and 
operation  of  the  permanent  forces  and  fixed  laws  of  nature  ;  it 
can,  and  must  consistently  deny  the  possibility  of  all  miracles. 
Regarding  nature  as  a  system  which  is  itself  eternal  and  com- 
plete, into  which  nothing  can  come,  and  from  which  nothing 
can  be  lost,  it  can  allow  no  occurrence  to  be  real  in  which  there 
is  anything  which  cannot  be  explained  as  a  development  of 
laws,  forces  and  conditions  which  are  the  same,  without  diminu- 
tion or  addition,  from  eternity  to  eternity.  This  important  fact 
should,  therefore,  be  kept  in  view,  namely,  that  any  theory 
which,  on  philosophical  grounds,  rejects  tJie  possibility  of  a  special 
revelation,  must,  in  its  legitimate  results,  end  in  atheism — atheism, 
which  is  the  only  consistent  form  of  naturalism — real  atheism 
whether  designated  by  that  term,  or  by  pantheism,  by  acosmism, 
or  pancosmism.  After  a  Feuerbach  had  proceeded  to  resolve 
theology  into  anthropology,  and  a  Strauss  had  deduced  from 
his  pantheism  the  impossibility  of  a  special  revelation,  it  was 


CHRISTIAN    THEISM    OR    ATHEISTIC    NATURALISM.  35 1 

but  natural  and  consistent,  that  their  rationalism  should  show 
itself,  as  it  has,  at  last  done,  in  Strauss,  as  pure  naturalism.  The 
question  really  reduces  itself  at  last,  to  this  :  Is  there  a  personal, 
living  God  ?  If  such  a  being  exist,  lie  has  not  only  created  the 
world  ;  but  He  reveals  Himself  in  it.  Special  revelation  is  not 
in  contradiction  with  any  attribute  of  such  a  being.  For  there 
is  no  reason  why  the  God,  who  reveals  Himself  in  general, 
should  not  reveal  Himself  specially :  for  the  latter  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  the  miracle  of  all  miracles,  the  original  creation,  nor 
with  the  divine  operations  in  nature  and  spirit.  It  is  no  more 
in  contradiction  with  reason,  than  it  is  with  religion  itself.  It  is 
not  in  contradiction  with  general  revelation,  because  it  presup- 
poses this  and  completes  it.  There  is,  therefore,  we  repeat,  no 
ground  left  for  rationalism  either  in  its  theistic  or  deistic  form, 
nor  for  any  kind  of  pantheism  even  zuhick  attempts  to  stop  short 
of  thorough  naturalism — so  far  as  antecedent  philosophical  ob- 
jection to  the  possibility  of  special  revelation  is  concerned.  In 
bringing  the  matter  to  tJiis  issue,  science  is  contributing  greatly  to 
the  final  triumph  of  Christianity.  For  certainly  when  the  appeal 
is  made  to  the  common  consciousness,  it  will  decide  in  favor  of 
the  Christian  against  the  pure  naturalistic  idea  of  the  universe. 
It  is  only  while  the  anti-Christian  idea  seems  to  have  some 
rational  middle  ground  between  Christianity  and  atheism,  and  is 
adorned  with  qualities,  and  promises  results,  which  belong  only 
to  the  former,  that  it  can  confuse  and  fascinate.  When  it  is 
once  stript  of  all  its  mystic  trappings,  and  stands  forth  as  pure 
and  bare  naturalism,  the  illusion  will  be  dissipated,  and  the 
spell  broken.  The  Christian  conception  of  nature  as  a  great 
preparatory  stage  for  a  higher  end,  as  a  system  which  is  passing 
through  a  teleological  development — in  which  new  forces  and 
laws  might  be  introduced  from  time  to  time,  in  which  revelation 
would  be  only  the  complement  of  reason, — is  certainly  more 
agreeable  to  all  that  is  most  rational,  most  moral,  most  noble  in 
man,  than  the  naturalistic  idea.  And  it  has,  thus,  the  natural 
beliefs  and  the  common  sense  of  men  on  its  side,  when  it  con- 
ceives such  interpositions  in  nature,  in  behalf  of  man,  to  be 
possible ;  while  naturalism  runs  counter  to  the  conmion  con- 
sciousness, which  we  all  have  of  personal  being,  moral  freedom 
and  responsibility,  and  utterly  fails  to  give  any  solutions  of 
the  great  questions  of  life  and  death — utterly  fails  to  give  any 


352         RELATION  OF  REVELATION  AND  REASON. 

solutions  which  afford  such  repose  of  mind  and  satisfaction  of 
heart,  as  do  the  teachings  of  Christianity.  The  question  of  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  rehgion,  thus  freed  from  all  antecedent 
objections  to  its  credibility,  becomes  a  question  of  fact,  of  ex- 
perience and  history.  And  in  the  light  of  what  we  have  said, 
the  history  of  such  a  special  revelation,  of  such  a  miraculous 
interposition,  needs  only  to  be  possessed  of  historical  evidence 
— no  more,  no  less — in  order  properly  to  claim  credence. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE    HISTORICAL    EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY    IN    THE    LIGHT  CF 
THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA. 

§  I .  ^  Special  Divine  Revelation  necessarily  involves  a  History. 

As  God  is  a  Spirit  and  men  are  spirits,  revelation  is  a  com- 
munication of  spirit  to  spirit ;  and  consequently,  to  be  clear  and 
intelligible,  it  must  be  made  through  the  medium  of  communi- 
cation which  is  characteristic  of  spirits — in  the  rational  speech 
of  personal  beings,  in  a  medium  other  than  the  mere  inarticulate 
language  of  nature.  It  is  a  communication  of  a  personal  nature, 
of  persons  with  persons;  and  consequently  it  must  be  made  in 
the  sphere  of  conscience  and  freedom.  As  it  involves  moral 
laws  and  promises,  requirements  and  gifts,  it  must  make  known 
acts  of  will.  It  is  a  manifestation  of  will,  and  will  manifests 
itself  in  acts ;  and,  consequently,  it  involves  history.  Will  has 
its  sphere  in  history.  Ideas  may  be  manifested  in  the  mute 
forms  and  the  necessary  movements  of  nature  ;  but  will,  holy 
will,  can  express  itself  only  in  history  in  a  clear  and  impressive 
manner.  God's  "eternal  power  and  godhead"  can  be  made 
known  "from  the  creation  of  the  world  ;"  but  His  moral  attri- 
butes. His  justice  and  His  love,  "the  God  of  life  and  consolation, 
of  righteousness  and  goodness,"  are  revealed  only  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  in  the  acts  of  divine  providence,  in  preservation 
and  government.  But  general  history  itself  is  not  an  adequate 
medium.  It  seems  to  care  mainly  for  the  race.  The  acts  of 
divine  providence  in  general,  do  indeed  refer  to  the  individual 
also,  but  not  with  sufficient  clearness  to  produce  the  complete 
repose  and  peace  of  faith.  And  especially  must  a  revelation  to 
sinful  spirits  involve  a  special  history — a  sacred  history  within 
the  profane  history  of  the  fallen  world.  Such  a  history  of 
divine  acts  for  the  redemption  of  man  is  recorded  in  the  Sacred 
Scriptures. 

23  (353) 


354  HISTORICAL    EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

§  2.  No  Solid  Objections  to  the  Practicability  of  such  a  History 

Having  seen  reason  to  reject  naturalism,  and  found  that  there 
is  no  middle  ground  between  that  and  the  theism  which  accepts 
the  possibility  and  probability  of  a  special  revelation,  we  are 
prepared  to  estimate  the  value,  and  appreciate  the  evidence,  of 
such  a  sacred  history,  There  are  no  longer  objections  on  theo- 
logical grounds,  for  God  has  all  the  power  necessary  to  carry  on 
such  a  course  of  spiritual  education.  As  the  Creator  of  the 
spirit.  He  understands  perfectly  the  constitution  of  man,  and 
how  he  may  be  enlightened  and  influenced;  and  having  all  power. 
He  can  act  upon  him  according  to  His  will.  To  deny  this, 
would  be  to  deny  that  He  is  able  to  govern  the  spiritual  world. 
And  it  is  also  antJu^opologically  possible.  Man  has  capacity  to 
receive  such  a  revelation.  As  a  man  can  be  influenced  intel- 
lectually and  morally  by  his  fellow  creatures  without  the  viola- 
tion of  any  law  of  nature  or  mind;  so  he  can  certainly  receive 
communication  from  his  Creator — the  Maker  of  men  and  all 
things — without  the  destruction  of  the  laws  of  his  own  constitu- 
tion, or  those  of  the  world.  God's  acts  in  such  a  history  would, 
indeed,  transcend,  but  not  violate  the  laws  of  man's  nature ; 
they  would  be  supernatural,  immediate,  additional  to  nature,  but 
not  subversive  of  its  constitution. 

It  has,  indeed,  been  objected  that  it  would  be  impossible  for 
the  subject  of  revelation  to  distinguish  the  knowledge,  thus 
divinely  communicated,  from  natural  knowledge,  inasmuch  as 
in  the  latter,  so  in  the  former,  the  source  of  the  knowledge  does 
not  itself  come  into  the  consciousness.  But  aside  from  the 
fact  that  this  objection  rests  upon  a  psychological  doctrine, 
which  is  by  no  means  demonstrated  to  be  true ;  it  is  enough  to 
know  that  men  do  practically  distinguish  the  sources  of  their 
natural  knowledge  from  each  other,  and,  consequently,  have 
capacity  to  distinguish  the  source  of  spiritual  or  revealed  knowl- 
edge from  the  natural  sources  of  information.  And  the  theist, 
in  recognizing  the  possibility  of  God's  giving  a  special  revela- 
tion, must  recognize  the  possibility  that  He  can  accompany  such 
a  communication  with  sufficient  marks  of  distinction  from  other 
knowledge,  and  with  satisfactory  evidence  of  its  truth  and 
reality.  In  other  words,  if  God  is  able  to  give  a  special  revela- 
tion, He  is  also  able  to  enable  those,  to  whom  He  makes  it,  to 
know  that  it  is  such. 


CONSISTENT  WITH  THE  NATURE  OF  GOD  AND  MAN.    355 

The  objection  based  on  the  laws  of  belief  as  engendered  by 
habit,  as  the  result  of  uniform  repetition,  namely,  that  any  break 
in  the  uniformity  of  repetition,  as  a  miracle  is  supposed  to  be, 
would  destroy  all  basis  of  belief,  and  that  we  must,  therefore, 
conclude  against  all  miracles,  rests  manifestly  upon  a  defective 
psychology.  It  declares  that  as  testimony  is  more  likely  to  be 
false  than  our  general  experience,  no  miracle  can  be  true.  Such 
psychological  reasoning  would,  in  its  logical  and  legitimate 
course,  end  in  universal  skepticism — skepticism  in  regard  to  our 
natural  as  well  as  our  spiritual  knowledge  ;  a  result,  rejected  by 
common  sense,  and  a  state  of  mind  which  cannot  long  be  en- 
dured, with  which  few  men  can  rest  satisfied ;  and,  consequently, 
this  objection  proves  too  much  for  all  who  refuse  to  be  universal 
skeptics ;  and,  therefore,  for  nearly  all  mankind,  it  will  always 
be  found  to  prove  nothing  at  all. 

Revelation  in  the  light  of  theism  being  clearly  apprehended 
as  morally  possible,  that  is,  consistent  with  the  wisdom  and 
goodness  of  God ;  faith  will  not  be  staggered  by  objections 
drawn  from  the  transient  and  conflicting  opinions  of  men  re- 
specting what  a  revelation,  if  real,  would  be.  It  will  always  point 
only  to  the  old  question  put  by  its  Author  to  the  proud  criticiser 
and  dictator  of  His  ways:  "Where  wast  thou,  when  I  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  earth  ?"  Thus  some  have  said  that  if  it  had 
been  real,  it  would  have  been  given  at  once  to  all  nations.  Now, 
aside  from  the  answer  which  might  be  drawn  from  the  circum- 
stance that  the  special  revelation  which  the  Bible  professes  to 
contain,  claims  to  have  been  originally  given  to  all  men,  we  may 
say  that  the  objection  would  bear  with  equal  force  against  many 
of  the  most  precious  gifts  of  God.  We  might  as  well  re- 
quire, for  instance,  that  the  gifts  of  genius  should  have  been 
bestowed  upon  every  man,  and  that  the  blessings  of  science 
should  have  been  at  once  given  to  all.  The  ignorant  unbeliever 
in  the  truths  of  science  might  as  reasonably  declare,  that  if 
science  were  true  it  would  shine  down  out  of  the  sky  upon  the 
eyes  of  all,  as  does  the  skeptical  objector  to  revelation,  that  if 
it  were  real,  "  it  should  have  been  written  on  the  face  of  the 
heavens,"  so  that  all  might  at  once  have  read  it.  Others  have 
objected  that  it  would  produce  an  abnormal  process  of  human 
development ;  that  we  should  expect  that  men  and  nations 
would  be   left  to  develop  themselves    religiously,  simply  from 


356  HISTORICAL   EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

their  own  innate  forces,  and  according  to  the  laws  of  their  own 
nature.  But  we  might  for  the  same  reason  object  to  all  instruc- 
tion and  education.  And  the  actual  history  of  the  progress  of 
civilization  among  men,  in  which  it  is  manifest  that  men  and  na- 
tions have  never  risen  from  the  savage  to  the  civilized  state  by 
their  own  efforts,  but  that  the  impulse  is  always  from  without — 
from  one  individual  or  nation  upon  another — shows  not  only  the 
groundlessness  of  this  objection  to  special  religious  instruction 
divinely  given,  but  goes  far  to  prove  that  all  the  superiority  of 
the  modern  nations  of  Christendom  over  the  heathen — whose 
ancestors  were  alike  barbarous — is  due  to  the  divine  education 
resulting  from  special  revelation. 

In  answer  to  the  objections  against  religious  belief,  that  it 
fosters  superstition,  we  need  only  say  that  this  is  the  abuse, 
which  can  be  easily  distinguished  from  the  true  spirit  and  the 
proper  use  of  revelation  ;  that  the  abuse  of  a  thing  is  no  valid 
argument  against  its  nature  and  desirableness;  and  that  as 
Christianity,  wherever  it  has  gone,  has,  instead  of  promoting, 
exterminated  the  superstitions  of  men — so  much  so  that  it  is 
heathendom,  and  not  Christendom,  that  is  now  the  great  abode 
of  superstition — there  cannot  be  in  it  a  tendency  to  foster  super- 
stition. There  is  nothing,  then,  in  nature  or  mind,  inconsistent 
with  the  idea  that  God  has,  on  the  one  hand,  made  the  human 
reason  so  dependent  upon  Himself,  and  has  in  view  so  great  a 
destination  for  man,  that  He  has  made  it  necessary,  desirable 
and  practicable  to  give  him  the  guiding  light  of  special  revela- 
tion— the  educating  influence  of  a  sacred  history.  Nature,  though 
good,  is  not  at  once  perfected  and  completed  by  the  creative 
hand,  but  is  made  to  pass  through  a  development  to  a  higher 
end — a  teleological  development  which  admits  superinductions, 
in  which  even  the  existence  of  man  and  his  operations  might  be 
said  to  be  a  miracle  to  nature;  and  created  spirit  itself,  though 
dominant  over  nature,  has  still  its  goal  before  it.  It  is  to  pass 
through  a  development  in  which  there  is  a  second,  a  comple- 
mentive  creation;  and  the  God-man  is  a  miracle  to  created 
spirits,  as  rational  man  is  to  the  brute  world.  "  In  terming  itself 
the  new,  the  second  creation,"  says  Martensen,  "  Christianity  by 
no  means  calls  itself  a  disturbance  of  nature,  but  rather  the 
completion  of  the  work  of  creation;  the  revelation  of  Christ 
and  the  kingdom,  of  Christ  it  pronounces  the  last  potency  of  the 


HISTORICAL    REVELATION    NECESSARY.  357 

work  of  creation;  which  power,  whether  regarded  as  completing 
or  as  redeeming  the  world,  must  be  conceivable  as  teleological, 
operating  so  as  to  change  and  limit  the  lower  forces,  in  so  far  as 
these  are  in  their  nature  not  eternal  and  organically  complete, 
but  only  temporal  and  temporary.  Hence  the  point  of  unity 
between  the  natural  and  the  supernatural  lies  in  the  teleological 
design  of  nature  to  subserve  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  its  con- 
sequent susceptibility  to,  its  capacity  of  being  moulded  by,  the 
supernatural  creative  activity.  Nature  does  not  contradict  the 
notion  of  a  creation;  and  it  is  in  miracles  that  the  dependence 
of  nature  on  a  free  Creator  becomes  perfectly  evident.  But, 
while  nature  does  not  contradict  the  notion  of  creation,  the 
assumption  of  a  creation  is  quite  as  little  inconsistent  with  the 
notion  of  nature.  For,  although  the  new  creation  does  do  away 
with  the  laws  of  this  nature,  yet  it  by  no  means  destroys  the 
notion  of  nature  itself.  For  the  very  notion  of  nature  implies, 
not  a  hindering  restraint  to  freedom,  but  rather  that  it  is  the 
organ  of  freedom.  And  as  the  miraculous  element  in  the  life 
of  Christ  reveals  the  unity  of  spirit  and  nature,  so  the  revelation 
of  Christ  at  once  anticipates  and  predicts  a  new  nature,  a  new 
heaven,  and  a  new  earth,  in  which  a  new  system  of  laws  will 
appear;  a  system  which  will  exhibit  the  harmony  of  the  laws  of 
nature  and  freedom  —  a  state  for  which  the  whole  structure  of 
the  present  creation,  with  its  unappeased  strife  between  spirit 
and  nature,  is  only  a  teleological  transition  period."  But  espe- 
cially do  nature  and  man  perishingly  need  such  divine  interposi- 
tion, such  superinduction  of  a  second  creation,  in  consequence 
of  sin.  Men  are  in  a  state  of  ruin,  and  cannot  save  themselves; 
the  whole  body  of  humanity  is  diseased,  and  no  one  member  of 
it  can  help  the  rest.  All  healing  help  must  come  from  God. 
The  Healer  of  nature's  wounds,  the  Physician  of  souls,  the  Con- 
queror of  death  must  come  from  above,  and  begin  a  new  work 
on  earth  and  in  humanity.  Man  is  depraved,  and  a  curse  is  on 
the  earth.  The  harp  of  nature,  once  so  sweet  and  harmonious 
that  it  woke  the  melodies  of  heaven,  and  caused  the  "  morning 
stars  to  sing  together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God  to  shout  for  joy," 
is  now  broken.  It  no  longer  gives  any  accordant  responses  to 
the  harmonies  of  the  universe,  as  it  is  conceived  of  God,  and  as 
He  will  have  it  to  be.  And  the  language  of  heaven  now  is, 
"  Remove  the  diadem,  take  away  the  crov/n;  for  I  will  overturn, 


35 8  HISTORICAL   EVIDENCES   OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

overturn,  overturn,  till  He  shall  come  whose  right  it  is,  and  I 
will  give  it  Him."  It  will  only  be  when  the  banner  of  this  Prince 
of  Peace  shall  wave  over  a  penitent,  believing  and  restored 
world,  that  there  "will  be  none  to  hurt  in  all  the  holy  mountain 
of  the  Lord."  "The  whole  creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  to- 
gether in  pain  until  now."  Nature  speaks  in  none  but  plaintive 
tones;  and  man  groans  under  the  burdens  of  sin,  and  sighs  for 
deliverance  from  his  "bondage  to  the  fear  of  death."  But  the 
Restorer  of  nature,  "the  desire  of  the  nations,"  has  come.  He 
has  begun  the  glorious  work  which  shall  culminate  in  "the  new 
heavens  and  the  new  earth,"  in  which  dwelleth  righteousness — 
not  only  in  the  completion  of  nature  and  the  perfection  of  man, 
but  in  the  restoration  of  the  one  from  the  bondage  of  corrup- 
tion, and  the  glorification  of  the  other  in  the  everlasting  king- 
dom of  God. 

§  3.   Two  Important  Facts  in  the  Question  of  the  Authenticity  of 
the  Sacred  Scriptures. 

In  the  investigation  of  the  authenticity  of  the  Christian  reve- 
lation—  the  credibility  of  the  Sacred  History — two  important 
facts  should  be  constantly  borne  in  mind.  First,  the  fact,  to 
which  we  have  called  attention,  that  the  objections  to  the  truth 
of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  have  arisen  mainly  from  their  miracu- 
lous character,  that  is,  to  the  assumed  antecedent  incredibility 
respecting  all  miracles.  The  objections  to  the  authenticity  of 
the  evangelical  history  rest,  in  the  first  instance,  and  in  the  prin- 
cipal cases,  upon  the  idea  of  the  impossibility  of  any  miraculous 
element  in  history.  It  is  upon  this,  and  not  upon  any  peculiar 
historical  difficulties,  not  upon  any  important  lack  of  historical 
evidence,  that  the  skeptical  criticism  of  the  present  day  pro- 
ceeds. It  proceeds  upon  the  presupposition  of  the  impossibility 
of  a  miracle,  and  that  all  apparently  supernatural  events  must 
be  ruled  out  of  history  as,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  incredible. 
It  makes  its  a  priori  philosophy  determine  what  history  must 
be.  It  asks  not  for  the  historical  evidence  of  such  an  event,  in 
the  first  instance,  but  treats  it  as  that  which  could  not  have 
occurred.  The  disciples  of  this  school  of  skepticism  say  that 
no  amount  of  historical  evidence  could  induce  them  to  believe 
that  a  miracle  had  really  occurred.  As  one  of  them  says:  "  If 
all  ecclesiastical  officers  from  the  Pope  to  the  lowest  functionary 


THE    GROUNDLESS   SOURCE    OF   OBJECTIONS.  359 

in  the  Church;  and  if  all  the  civil  ofificers  from  the  President  of 
the  United  States  down  to  the  humblest  official,  should  swear 
that  they  had  seen  a  man  who  was  really  dead  restored  to  life, 
I  could  not  believe  them  ;  nay,  if  I  saw  such  an  occurrence 
with  my  own  eyes  I  would  not  believe  its  reality ;  I  would 
rather  believe  that  my  senses  had  deceived  me."  Now  from 
what  has  appeared  in  the  discussion  of  the  possibility  of  mir- 
acles, it  is  evident  that  the  assumption  of  the  skeptical  critics 
of  the  antecedent  impossibility  of  any  miraculous  element  any- 
where in  the  history  of  mankind,  is  so  unwarrantable  that  it  ij 
a  clear  proof  of  their  being  unqualified  for  the  investigation  of 
these  documents,  and  that  the  results  to  which  they  have  come 
are  unworthy  of  confidence. 

We  have  endeavored  to  show  that  the  rationalist,  believing  as 
he  does  in  a  personal  God  and  Creator  of  the  world,  cannot, 
whether  he  be  deist  or  theist,  consistently  deny  the  possibility 
of  miracles.  And,  consequently,  having  no  difficulties  on  cos- 
mological  grounds,  whatever  difficulty  he  may,  on  theological 
and  anthropological  grounds,  have  speculatively  in  regard  to 
the  moral  probability  and  improbability  of  special  divine  revela- 
tion— even  though  intellectually  he  apprehend  it  as  morally 
impossible — such  are  the  practical  interests  which,  on  his  own 
grounds,  are  involved  in  the  question,  that  when  he  approaches 
the  historical  question  with  the  presupposition  that  all  miracles 
must  beforehand  be  ruled  out  as  incredible,  he  does  not,  as  a 
critic,  deserve  our  confidence. 

When  we  consider  that  God  alone  so  perfectly  knows  Him- 
self and  us,  that  He  must  make  known  the  manner  in  which 
He  is  to  be  worshiped  and  served ;  when  we  remember  how, 
in  its  practical  operations,  religion  seems,  in  its  very  nature,  to 
involve  a  positive  authority;  that  from  our  finiteness  we  are  often 
obliged  to  act  when  we  can  have  no  speculative  apprehension  of 
the  reason  for  preferring  one  course  to  another,  can  see  nothing 
in  the  nature  of  things  deciding  what  we  should  do ;  that  from 
our  ignorance  we  are  obliged  to  trust  ourselves  so  directly  and 
implicitly  to  the  will  of  God,  that  we  practically  need  a  positive 
revelation  from  Him  respecting  what  He  would  have  us  believe 
and  do;  that  faith,  the  essential  element  of  all  true  piety,  must 
rest,  for  certainty  and  repose,  upon  positive  authority ;  when 
we  remember  that  faith  involves  the  will,  that  it  cannot  be  the 


360  HISTORICAL    EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

result  of  mere  reasoning  or  demonstration  in  the  understanding, 
we  will  feel  that  it  cannot  become  fixed  and  assured  without  a 
special  revelation  of  the  divine  will.  And  especially  when  we 
remember  that  we  are  sinners — which  the  rationalist  admits — 
we  cannot  have  certainty  and  assurance  of  faith,  unless  we  have 
some  positive  word  from  God  respecting  His  will  concerning 
us.  When  we  consider  these  things,  we  feel  that  the  criticism 
which,  in  the  minds  of  men  who  admit  a  personal  God  and 
Creator,  the  reality  of  religion  and  the  necessity  of  faith — who 
regard  sin  as  sin — the  criticism  that  in  the  midst  of  these  ad- 
missions, approaches  the  evangelical  history  with  the  a  priori 
decision  that  it  cannot  be  believed,  if  it  be  miraculous — is  not 
worthy  of  confidence. 

And  though  the  pure  naturalist  consistently,  on  his  ground, 
rejects  the  possibility  of  miracles,  yet  even  he  must  see  that  there 
is  enough  in  the  things  in  conflict  with  his  grounds,  and  in  the 
practical  and  incomparably  great  interests  involved,  to  make  it 
improper  for  him  to  let  them  stand  against  all  the  testimony  of 
history.  Whatever  may  appear  to  be  the  strength  of  his  logical 
conclusion,  when  he  remembers  how  his  intellectual  process,  in 
everything,  practically  points  to  spirit — to  personality;  how  the 
forms  of  nature  and  the  works  of  art  are  beautiful  only  when 
they  become  to  us  the  organ  of  spiritual  sentiment ;  how  in  our 
search  for  the  truth  of  things,  we  must  find  it  in  spirit;  that  if 
the  absolute  be  truth,  then  the  truth  is  personal ;  that  practi- 
cally, spirit,  personal  being,  seems  to  be  the  only  valid  source 
and  the  only  universal  bond  of  the  world — the  point  of  its  ori- 
gin and  its  unity ;  when  he  considers  the  phenomena  of  con- 
science, the  sense  of  freedom,  the  feeling  of  responsibility,  the 
wants  of  the  heart — its  yearnings  and  its  fears,  its  longings  and 
its  premonitions — all  so  universally  prevalent  among  men,  and 
even  in  himself,  notwithstanding  all  his  reasonings  to  the  con- 
trary— when  he  considers  these  practical  interests,  even  he  has 
no  right  to  say  that  we  may  determine  beforehand  that  all  mira- 
cles must  be  ruled  out  of  history.  And  when  he  does  so,  we 
have  a  right  to  say  that  he  is  not  in  a  state  of  mind  to  do  jus- 
tice to  history  as  a  critic. 

The  second  important  fact  is  that  with  all  this  a  priori  pre- 
sumption against  them  in  the  spirit  of  this  criticism,  a  part  of 
the  sacred   record  has  come  forth  from  these  severe  tests  un- 


THE   critic's    admission    FATAL   TO    HIS    OBJECTIONS.         36 1 

harmed — has  passed  the  fiery  ordeal  unscathed.  Thus,  for  ex- 
ample, no  respectable  writer,  even  among  the  most  skeptical  of 
critics,  calls  in  question  the  authenticity  of  Paul's  Epistles  to  the 
Romans,  the  Corinthians  and  the  Galatians.  These  four  epis- 
tles are  recognized  as  genuine  and  authentic  by  all  critics  of 
high  character  in  the  skeptical,  as  well  as  the  believing  school. 
This  secures  for  the  truth  of  Christianity,  as  a  miraculous  revela- 
tion, several  important  points.  Thus  we  have  the  testimony  of 
Paul,  which  is  admitted  to  be  sincere,  for  the  greatest  of  the 
Christian  miracles,  the  resurrection  of  Christ ;  and  this  is  suffi- 
cient to  establish  the  contents  of  the  Christian  faith — -to  prove 
the  truth  of  Christianity,  as  a  special  divine  revelation.  If  we 
had  only  these  four  epistles,  we  would  have  the  substance  of 
Christianity,  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  revealed  plan  of  sal- 
vation, and  a  well-grounded  proof  of  its  being  a  miraculous  rev- 
elation. The  authenticity  of  these  epistles  would  prove  the 
authenticity  of  the  miraculous  story  of  the  gospels,  and  by  impli- 
cation that  of  the  Old  Testament. 

§  4.  TJie  Admission  of  the  Authenticity  of  these  Fonr  Books  is  fatal 
to  the  Rationalist's  Attempt  to  Invalidate  the  Historical  Evidence 
of  the  Miracles. 

When  the  rationalist,  after  having  admitted  that  Paul  wrote 
these  epistles,  and  that  he  was  a  sincere  man  and  honestly  de- 
clared what  he  believed  to  be  the  truth,  still  objects  that,  as 
Paul  was  not  personally  acquainted  with  the  life  and  acts  of 
Jesus,  but  had  heard  these  things  from  others,  he  may  have  been 
deceived — we  answer  that  he  lived  so  near  to  the  time,  that  if 
there  had  been  any  deception,  he  would  have  had  every  oppor- 
tunity, and  before  his  conversion  would  have  had  every  disposi- 
tion, to  discover  it ;  and  that  he  could  clearly  ascertain  whether 
the  story  which  he  had  heard  from  others  was  true  or  not.  Be- 
sides, Paul  professes  to  have  received  his  gospel,  not  from  others, 
but  by  revelation  from  Christ  Himself,  and  to  have  seen  Christ 
after  His  resurrection — for  example,  on  the  way  to  Damascus  ; 
He  is,  therefore,  and  claims  to  be,  an  independent  witness  of  the 
resurrection  of  Christ.  "  For,"  he  declares  of  himself,  "  I  de- 
livered unto  you  first  of  all  that  which  I  myself  received,  how 
that  Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures ;  and 
that  He  was  buried,  and  that  He  rose  again  the  third  day  ac- 


362  HISTORICAL    EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

cording  to  the  Scriptures  ;  and  that  he  was  seen  of  Cephas,  then 
of  the  twelve  ;  after  that  of  above  five  hundred  brethren  at  once  ; 
of  whom  the  greater  part  remain  unto  this  present,  but  some  are 
fallen  asleep.  After  that  He  was  seen  of  James  ;  then  of  all  the 
apostles.  And  last  of  all  He  was  seen  of  me  ahoy  And  the  at- 
tempt of  the  rationalist  to  explain  away  the  force  of  this  testi- 
mony by  supposing  that  Paul  was  the  subject  of  "  epileptic  fits," 
subject  to  delusive  visions,  because  he  says  he  "  was  caught  up 
into  paradise  and  heard  things  unspeakable" — will  fail  to  satisfy 
him  who  believes  in  the  authenticity  of  these  epistles,  and  in  the 
honesty  of  their  author.  For  Paul  is  remarkable  for  clear  sense 
and  sound  judgment,  as  is  manifest  enough  in  these  writings 
themselves.  Far  from  over-estimating  ecstatic  states  of  mind,  he 
reproves  others  for  attaching  comparatively  too  much  import- 
ance to  them  ;  and  he  closely  distinguishes  between  mere  visions, 
and  the  revelations  which  he  receives  from  Christ ;  and  between 
that  which  he  has  received  by  revelation  and  that  which  he 
speaks  only  on  his  own  authority.  Besides,  he  himself  exercises 
miraculous  gifts  and  powers  which  he  professes  to  have  received 
from  Christ.  Thus,  there  must  have  been  in  his  own  possession 
an  infallible  means  of  knowing  the  truth  or  the  falsehood  of  the 
report  of  Christ's  power  to  work  miracles.  If  Paul  was  honest 
in  the  belief  that  he  had  these  gifts,  and  in  the  declaration  that 
he  exercised  them,  and  that  he  had  received  them  from  Christ, 
then  the  miracles  of  Christ  are  real ;  for  He  could  not  enable  an- 
other to  perform  miracles  if  He  did  not  possess  the  power  to 
work  them  Himself  The  miracles  of  the  disciple  would,  in, 
this  case,  prove  those  of  the  Master. 

§  5.  All  Attejiipts  of  Rationalisj/i  to  Explain  the  Evangelical  His- 
tory, zvithout  the  Admission  of  Miracles,  arc  Unsatisfactory. 

When  the  rationalist  admits,  as  he  does,  that  Christianity  has 
produced  an  entire  revolution,  a  change,  an  improvement  of  the 
mind  and  heart,  of  human  life  and  society,  such  as  never  was, 
and  never  could  be  accomplished  by  any  or  all  of  the  great 
philosophical  systems  of  heathendom — an  improvement  which 
they  not  only  could  not  effect,  but  could  not  even  conceive — that 
it  originated  ideas  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brother- 
hood of  man,  which  were  before  impossible  to  the  conception  of 
the  human  mind ;  that  it  introduced  a  recognition  of  the  rights 


THE    MORAL    REVOLUTION    UNDER    CHRISTIANITY.  363 

of  man  as  man,  of  the  claims  of  the  individual  in  society,  of  the 
sacredness  of  human  life,  which  had  never  before  entered  into 
the  thoughts  of  the  world ;  that  it  created  a  sympathy  for  the 
poor  and  the  suffering  which  was  not  only  new  in  the  world,  not 
only  never  practiced,  but  even  contrary  to  the  teaching  of  its 
greatest  philosophers;  that  it  abolished  slavery,  the  cruel  treat- 
ment of  captives,  and  the  exposure  of  children,  acts  which 
were  not  only  allowed  but  inculcated  before  ;  that  it  rescued 
woman  from  a  state  of  degradation  to  which  it  had  been  thought 
she  was  fated  by  nature,  and  delivered  men  from  the  state  of 
bondage  to  others  which  was  considered  as  the  natural  and 
necessary  condition  of  a  great  part  of  the  human  family,  a  con- 
dition resulting  necessarily  from  the  dualism  of  the  universe 
from  eternity,  from  that  eternal  matter  which  spirit — not  even 
the  Spirit  of  God  could  control,  and  which  must  necessarily 
remain  in  a  part  of  the  human  family;  that  it  abolished  the  cus- 
tom of  public  entertainments  and  amusements  which  were  given 
at  the  cost  of  lives  of  innocent  men — such  as  the  gladiatorial 
shows — and  the  habit  of  disregarding  the  rights  of  nations  in 
war,  all  of  which  were  before  supposed  to  be  grounded  in  the 
nature  of  things; — he  who  admits  all  this  and  consequently 
brings  the  question  to  this  issue:  Did  the  few  followers  of  that 
poor  young  man,  that  obscure  peasant  of  Galilee,  in  the  midst 
of  their  ignorance  and  poverty,  without  wealth  or  power,  orig- 
inate and  inaugurate  this  great  change — accomplish  what  the 
Platos  and  Aristotles  of  the  Old  World  had  in  thousands  of 
years  failed  to  accomplish,  nay,  even  to  conceive  ?  Did  they 
accomplish  it  by  their  mere  human  thoughts  and  human  powers, 
with  no  influence  different  in  kind  from  that  which  these  great 
men  of  heathendom  were  under  ?  When  the  question  comes  to 
be:  Did  mere  human  genius,  in  these  humble,  uneducated  men, 
accomplish  what  it  never  before  effected,  under  the  most  favor- 
able circumstances  of  culture  and  power;  or  was  it  the  work  of 
a  special  divine  influence  ? — then  the  common  sense  of  man  will 
always  decide  in  favor  of  the  latter  side  of  the  alternative.  And 
this  view  of  the  subject  will  become  more  and  more  convincing 
in  proportion  to  the  clearness  with  which  men  shall  apprehend 
the  difference  and  antagonism  of  the  Christian  and  the  heathen 
idea  of  God  and  the  world.  Men  will  see  more  and  more  clearly 
that  as  there  are  but  tJiese  two  zvorld-viczvs  possible  to  the  Jncuian 


364  HISTORICAL    EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

mind,  so  it  is  only  the  Oiristian  idea  zvhich  coidd  produce  such 
results ;  and  that  it  is  an  idea  which  imist  have  come  to  man  by 
special  revelation.  The  fact,  too,  that  whenever  men  have  been 
removed  from  that  pecuhar  influence  which  Christianity  exerts, 
and  by  which  it  has  produced  this  great  revolution  in  human 
life  and  society,  they  are  found  to  fall  into  the  same  bondage 
which  kept  the  nations  of  heathendom  in  the  state  in  which 
Christianity  found  them,  proves  the  same  thing. 

§  6.  Tlic  Christian  can  Afford  to  Wait  for  the  Conclusions  of 
Science  with  the  Assurance  that  its  Final  Results,  like  those  At- 
tained in  the  Past,  will  be  found  in  Harmony  with  the  Revela- 
tions of  Christianity. 

Before  we  close  this  discussion  for  the  present  we  would  call 
the  attention  of  the  reader  to  the  fact,  that  the  Christian  idea  is 
so  sure  of  the  great  central  truth  of  Christianity  as  a  miraculous 
revelation,  that  it  can  never  be  effectually  disturbed  by  objec- 
tions arising  from  other  world-views.  In  regard  to  these,  it 
would  simply  lead  us  to  wait,  in  the  certain  expectation,  that 
science  will,  in  due  time,  answer  its  own  objections,  will  bring 
one  of  its  branches  to  correct  the  deviations  of  another ;  and 
that  as  the  sciences  have  generally  seemed,  at  first,  each  of  them 
to  be  in  conflict  with  Christianity,  and,  then,  ere  long  were  found 
to  be  in  harmony  with  it,  and  to  become  its  firm  supporters,  yea 
found  to  have  contributed — even  by  the  very  discoveries  which 
were  at  first  regarded,  through  the  misapprehensions  of  her 
friends,  as  well  as  her  foes,  to  be  inconsistent  with  her — to  have 
contributed  even  by  these  to  the  enlargement  of  the  views  of 
Christians,  and  to  the  clearer  apprehension  of  these  great  truths 
of  Christianity — so  it  will  be  in  the  future.  In  proportion  as 
science  and  philosophy  extend  our  views  of  the  first  creation — 
the  one  of  the  field  oi  nature,  the  other  of  the  world  of  mind 
— will  we  be  able  to  enlarge  our  ideas  of  the  second  creation, 
for  which  this  is  the  preparation. 

This  has,  thus  far,  been  the  case  in  regard  to  the  objections 
derived  from  the  natural  sciences.  A  fuller  discovery  of  the 
analogy  between  the  course  of  nature  and  the  development  of 
sacred  history,  a  clearer  view  of  the  providence  of  God  in  na- 
ture, and  of  His  operations  in  grace,  as  described  in  the  Bible, 
has  been  the  final  result. 


THE   SCIENCES    CORRECTING    EACH    OTHER.  365 

Thus  Geology  and  the  Mosaic  account  of  creation  are  becom- 
ing more  and  more  capable  of  reconciliation.  And,  in  the 
meantime,  the  former  has  become  one  of  the  greatest  stores  of 
facts,  from  which  the  theologian  can  draw  arguments  for  the 
probability  of  special  creations,  and  for  a  personal  creator.  Tt 
now  presents  some  of  the  strongest  objections  to  the  deistic 
perversion  of  the  idea  of  evolution,  which  separates  it  entirely 
from  the  possibility  of  divine  interpositions  or  supernatural  in- 
fluence ;  and  thus  denies  all  special  creations,  all  superinduction 
of  new  forces,  all  new  originations  in  the  domain  of  nature.  It 
presents  evidences  of  superinductions  of  additional  forces,  at 
different  intervals,  in  the  pre-Adamic  history  of  our  earth,  which 
have  never  been  successfully  met  by  the  opponents  of  the  pres- 
ence of  a  creative  hand,  in  the  evolution  and  ongoing  of  nature. 
And  against  the  pantheistic  doctrine  of  the  evolution  of  nature 
from  eternity  without  a  beginning,  it  gives  strong  confirmation 
to  the  idea  of  that  miracle  of  miracles,  the  first,  the  original 
creation,  the  creation  from  nothing,  the  origination  from  the 
divine  will  of  the  world  of  nature.  It  corroborates  the  view  of 
the  universe  existing  in  space  and  time,  as  having  originated  in 
personal  action,  from  the  possibilities  of  a  sovereign  will — the 
will  of  an  absolute  personality,  of  the  God  who  is  a  Spirit. 
And  it  shows,  at  least,  the  groundlessness  of  the  assumed  im- 
probability of  any  divine  interpositions — of  any  special  creations 
in  the  natural  world — and  that  the  silent  testimony  of  the  rocks 
IS  perfectly  consistent  with  the  living  witness  for  Christ — with 
the  facts  of  a  new,  a  second  creation. 

We  need  only  wait  and  the  several  theories  of  nature  and 
providence — originated  by  natural  sciences,  which  seem  to  be  in 
conflict  with  the  Christian  idea  of  God  and  the  world, — will 
mutually  correct  each  other,  and  will,  in  due  time,  bring  out  a 
result  which  will  be  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  teachings  of 
the  Sacred  Scriptures.  Already  has  much  of  this  been  done. 
The  present  idea  of  the  plan  and  mode  of  divine  action,  derived 
from  the  course  of  nature,  now  clearly  discovered  to  be  slow 
and  to  involve  vast  periods  of  time, — is  correcting  and  checking 
many  of  the  a  priori  conclusions  drawn  against  Christianity, 
from  former  philosophical  conceptions  of  divine  action.  Thus 
science  has  brought  to  light  many  examples  of  the  close  con- 
nections and  striking  analogies  betv/een  the  system  of  nature  as 


366  HISTORICAL    EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

discovered  by  science,  and  the  scheme  of  grace  as  revealed  in 
the  Bible ;  between  the  theology  of  nature,  and  the  theology  of 
revelation.  Thus  not  long  ago  it  was  a  standing  objection  in 
the  philosophical  world,  that  the  gradual  and  roundabout  way 
of  divine  action,  as  represented  by  the  scheme  of  salvation  in 
the  Bible,  was  inconsistent  with  true  rational  conceptions  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  allwise  and  omnipotent  God  acts.  It  was 
objected  by  many  that  the  system  of  grace  as  revealed  in  the 
gospel  was  so  slow  and  divided  into  so  many  distinct  economies. 
This  was  supposed  to  be  contrary  to  the  divine  mode  of  action 
as  it  is  manifested  in  the  economy  of  nature.  But  now  natural 
sciences — by  bringing  to  light  the  long  pre-Adamic  ages  of  our 
world,  the  different  and  distinct  organisms  of  the  several  periods, 
the  revolutions  that  have  rent  the  earth's  crust,  the  passing  away 
of  one  species  of  organic  and  animal  life,  to  make  room  for 
higher  and  more  perfect  plants  and  animals — have  proved  that 
God  actually  operates  in  nature  very  much  as  He  is  said  by 
Christianity  to  do  in  grace,  namely,  by  slow  steps  and  gradual 
processes  ;  and  that  it  is  highly  probable  that  another  change 
may  await  our  world,  resulting,  as  the  Scriptures  declare,  in 
"new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  in  which  dwelleth  righteous- 
ness." It  agrees  with  the  Bible  in  regarding  all  the  pre-Adamic 
ages  and  changes  of  nature  as  a  preparation  for  the  creation,  or, 
at  least,  the  advent  of  man  ;  and  all  the  movements  of  provi- 
dence since,  as  a  provision  for  the  coming  of  the  new  man ;  in 
exhibiting  all  the  great  epochs  in  the  history  of  our  earth,  as 
so  many  prophetic  types  of  the  dispensations  of  grace,  which 
are  transpiring  upon  its  surface,  each  as  a  preceding  creation, 
preparatory  to  a  higher  stage  of  being,  and  all  prefigurations  of 
the  process  of  the  spiritual  life,  though  not  the  sources  of  them. 
Thus  it  makes  it  probable  that  the  changes  of  nature  will  be 
found,  at  last,  to  have  been  only  so  many  different  preparations 
for  the  universal  reign  of  grace ;  in  short,  it  makes  probable  the 
existence  of  a  moral  world,  in  which  nothing  intervenes  between 
God  and  man,  and  where  nothing  interferes  with  the  idea  of  im- 
mediate influence  and  miraculous  action.  It  makes  it  probable 
that  nature  is  designed  to  be  the  instrument  and  organ  of  spirit, 
to  be  controlled  by  the  spirit  and  appropriated  to  its  uses ;  that 
a  miracle  is  but  the  point  of  union  between  the  world  of  spirit 
and  the  world  of  nature  ;    that  nature  and  grace  are,  thus,  con- 


SCIENCES    ILLUSTRATING    THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEA.  367 

nected ;  and  that  God  is  in  all,  as  He  is  before  all,  and  will  be  all 
in  all,  as  He  is  over  all. 

§  7.  The  Natural  Sciences  Reciprocally  Modify  the  World-views 
Severally  Derived  from  them  and  Enlarge  the  Theological  Vieiv 
of  the  Divine  Plan  of  Redernptioii. 

Thus  when  astronomical  science  first  began  to  explore  the 
vast  field  of  space  and  to  bring  to  view  the  countless  globes  and 
systems  of  the  material  world,  men  said  :  It  is  incredible  that 
such  wonderful  things  as  are  involved  in  the  conceptions  of 
Christianity,  should  really  have  been  done  for  our  insignificant 
planet,  and  for  the  small  and  lowly  family  of  God's  creatures, 
which  the  human  race  seemed  to  them  to  be,  in  the  light  of 
those  vast  multitudes  of  habitable  worlds,  and  those  countless 
hosts  of  higher  beings,  which  must,  as  they  supposed,  inhabit 
them.  But  when  astronomy  was  leading  us  to  this  conclusion, 
geology,  a  little  later,  came  in  to  check  us.  While  astronomy 
was  thus  seeming  to  give  us  countless  globes  in  space,  fitted  to 
be  the  abode  of  innumerable  multitudes  of  high,  rational  crea- 
tures, geology  was  preparing  to  follow  it,  with  the  history — the 
actual  history — of  a  world  in  time,  which  has  answered  the  ob- 
jections drawn  from  the  vast  fields  of  space,  and  from  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  worlds  of  nature.  It  proves  that,  in  the  divine 
plan,  worlds  may  be — because  our  earth  actually  was — for  long 
ages  the  abode  only  of  animals  of  the  lower  orders,  before  they 
are  prepared  to  be  the  home  of  rational  beings.  It  shows  that 
there  was  no  just  ground  for  the  conclusion,  that  all  those  worlds 
in  space,  must  be  already  the  abodes  of  intelligent  creatures ; 
and  that  they  may  be  only  in  a  state  of  gradual  preparation  for 
the  reception  of  rational  inhabitants.  It  shows  that,  in  point  of 
time,  rational  created  existence  may  be  comparatively  in  the  in- 
fancy of  its  being ;  that  we  may  in  our  earthly  life,  be  living  in 
an  age  of  the  universe,  which  is  only  the  beginning  of  the  exist- 
ence of  the  great  families  of  moral  creatures;  that  for  aught  we 
know,  our  earth  may  be  the  nursery  of  the  intelligent  and  moral 
occupants  themselves  of  those  "  many  mansions  "  in  the  Heavenly 
Father's  great  house,  in  the  vast  home  of  the  worlds  of  matter, 
which  He  is  preparing.  It  makes  it  probable,  that  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  angelic  beings  spoken  of  in  the  Bible,  men  may 
be  the  only  rational  creatures  in  the  universe.     Or.  at  least,  it 


368  HISTORICAL    EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

shows,  that  our  earth  may  be  the  laboratory  of  spiritual  truth, 
the  theatre  on  which  are  displayed  the  saving  truths  necessary 
for  preservation  in  innocence  if  not  for  restoration  to  holiness, 
of  all  moral  intelligences.  Men  may  be  the  only  intelligent  ex- 
istences who  combine  both  nature  and  spirit ;  and,  consequently, 
the  elements  of  all  created  existence  in  their  being ;  existences, 
therefore,  not  only  higher  than  the  brute,  which  has  only  the 
elements  of  nature,  but  superior  to  the  angel,  which  has  only 
the  elements  of  spirit  in  its  being.  Men  may,  thus,  be  the  sub- 
jects and  organs  of  the  highest  revelation  of  the  divine  plan  of 
created  existence,  nay  of  God  Himself  They  may  constitute 
the  only  society  of  existences,  where  all  are  of  one  nature,  and 
of  "one  blood;"  thus  illustrating  the  brotherhood  of  creatures, 
and  the  fatherhood  of  the  Creator ;  the  only  scene  of  intelligent 
life,  where  the  individuals  are  born  and  die ;  where  one  genera- 
tion goeth  and  another  cometh  ;  and  where  consequently,  all 
are  so  connected  that  what  is  done  by  one  is  done  for  all,  and 
what  is  done  for  one  is  done  for  all ;  and  who  can  thus  be  the 
proper  subjects  in  whose  creation,  and  preservation,  and  redemp- 
tion, might  be  made  manifest,  on  a  large  scale,  and  in  wide  ex- 
tent, and  for  long  continued  revelation,  "to  principalities  and 
powers  in  heavenly  places,"  now  existing,  as  well  as  to  those 
yet  to  be  brought  into  existence,  "  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God." 
In  the  light  of  geological  science,  of  the  history  of  our  earth, 
and  the  beginning  of  the  human,  the  intelligent  life  upon  it,  we 
might  regard  it  as  the  training  school  for  the  children  of  the 
moral  universe.  Men  may  be  the  creatures  best  suited  to  be 
subjects  of  the  divine  revelation ;  the  beings  in  the  history  of 
whose  redemption  and  sanctification  on  earth,  and  of  their  final 
holiness  and  blessedness  in  heaven,  might  be  afforded  the  per- 
fect revelation  of  God  to  His  creatures.  There  may  be  in  their 
salvation  and  destiny,  ^uch  a  display  of  the  nature  and  attri- 
butes of  God,  of  His  character  and  ways,  of  the  beauty  and 
necessity  of  holy  love  in  the  Creator  and  the  creature, — as  would 
be  sufficient  to  confirm  all  innocent  beings  in  the  choice  of  per- 
petual obedience,  and  secure  them  in  the  possession  of  unchang- 
ing holiness  and  everlasting  happiness.  It  thus  shows  that  the 
importance  of  a  world  of  beings  capable  of  such  principles, 
and  susceptible  to  such  a  work — of  a  world,  which  is  the  scene 
of  such  transactions — depends  not  upon  its  dimensions  in  space, 


THE    HARMONY    OF    SCIENCE   AND    CHRISTIANITY.  369 

nor  upon  the  degree  of  the  physical  power,  or  even  mental  en- 
dowments ;  nor  upon  the  comparative  number  of  its  inhabit- 
ants. As  "Bethlehem,"  though  small,  "was  not  the  least  among 
the  princes  of  Judah,"  because  out  of  it  came  the  King  and  ex- 
pectation of  all  nations;  so  our  earth,  small  as  are  its  dimensions, 
may  not  be  the  least  among  the  dominions  of  the  universe — 
may  be  to  the  universe  of  worlds,  what  Bethlehem  has  been  to 
the  nations  of  the  earth.  In  the  sense  of  the  meaning  of  the 
word  Bethlehem,  it  may,  indeed,  be  the  Bethlehem  of  the  uni- 
verse of  God's  spiritual  creatures — "the  house  of  bread,"  the 
storehouse  of  spiritual  food  for  the  countless  multitudes  of  the 
present  or  future  subjects  of  the  vast  material  kingdom  of  Je- 
hovah. 

It  makes  it  credible  that  humanity  was  taken  into  union  with 
divinity  in  the  person  of  the  God-man,  the  Eternal  Logos — the 
Creator  as  well  as  Redeemer  of  all,  the  mediator  between  creator- 
ship  and  creatureship,  as  well  as  between  the  holy  God  and  the 
sinful  world,  the  reconciler  "of  all  things  in  heaven  and  earth," 
in  order  that  her  children  might  be  prepared  by  the  process  of 
redemption,  to  take  secure  and  happy  possession  of  the  several 
provinces  of  the  vast  physical  empire  of  Jehovah,  as  fast  as  they 
shall  become  fitted  by  the  processes  of  nature,  to  be  the  abode 
of  rational  inhabitants.  Or,  if  it  was  not  done  to  save  them  and 
train  them  to  be  the  actual  inmates  of  these  vast  domains,  yet, 
at  least,  in  accordance  with  their  high  destiny  as  the  members 
of  Christ's  body,  the  Church,  the  bride  of  the  great  Bridegroom, 
the  sharers  in  His  work,  the  organs  of  His  spirit,  the  images  of 
His  glory — to  be  kings  and  priests  unto  God,  everywhere 
throughout  the  universe,  and  evermore  to  be  engaged  in  offering 
"  up  spiritual  sacrifices  acceptable  unto  God  through  Jesus  Christ ;" 
and  in  all  worlds  instructing  and  governing  their  more  youthful 
and  less  experienced  inhabitants  ;  "  showing  forth  "  to  all  intelli- 
gent beings  "  the  praises  of  Him  who  hath  called  them  out  ot 
darkness  into  His  marvelous  light."  And  then,  at  last,  to  be  them- 
selves exhibited  "  with  exceeding  joy,"  to  an  admiring  universe 
as  specimens  of  the  glorious  work  of  the  great  Redeemer, 
when  He  "  shall  have  come  to  be  glorified  in  His  saints,  and 
admired  in  all  them  that  believe."  Thus  will  "  the  music  of  the 
spheres  "  be  found,  at  the  last,  to  be  in  perfect  harmony  with 
"  the  song  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb." 
24 


370  HISTORICAL    EVIDENCES    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

"  There's  not  an  orb  which  Thou  beholdest, 
But  in  his  motion  like  an  angel  sings, 
Still  quiring  to  the  young-eyed  Cherubim. 
Such  music  is  in  immortal  souls, 
But  while  this  muddy  vesture  of  decay 
Doth  grossly  close  us  in 
We  cannot  hear  it." 

Having  thus  cleared  the  groundwork  of  theology  from  all 
these  unwarranted  negations  of  science  and  philosophy,  we  must 
refer  the  reader  to  such  works  as  that  of  Kurtz,  entitled,  "The  Bible 
and  Astronomy" — which,  as  the  fuller  statement  of  the  title  has 
it,  is,  indeed,  "  an  exposition  of  the  relation  between  the  Biblical 
Cosmology  and  natural  science" — to  the  volumes  of  the  dis- 
tinguished Apologist  Joseph  Cook,  as  well  as  to  the  numerous 
excellent  works  on  the  positive  evidences  of  Christianity ;  and 
now  turn  our  attention  to  the  relation  of  God  and  man,  of  di- 
vinity and  humanity  in  the  Sacred  History — of  the  divine  and 
the  human  in  the  special  revelation  which  we  possess  in  the 
Sacred  Scriptures.  It  is  desirable  to  look  at  the  subject  of  the 
inspiration  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  in  the  light  of  the  true 
Christian  idea  as  it  springs  from  the  principle  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  RELATION  AND  UNION  OF  THE  DIVINE 
AND  THE  HUMAN  IN  THE  HOLY  SCRIPTURES,  AS  IT  RESULTS  FROM 
THE  TRUE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  OF  GOD  AND  MAN. 

§  I .   Tlie  Incarnation  and  Inspiration. 

The  end  of  the  divine  movements  is  divine  revelation;  and 
the  perfect,  the  absolutely  perfect,  revelation  of  God  is  Christ. 
The  principle  of  the  Reformation  is  the  reception  of  Christ  as 
the  perfect  revelation  of  God — faith  in  God  in  Christ  reconciling 
the  world  unto  Himself.  The  idea  of  God  and  man,  of  divinity 
and  humanity,  arising  from  this  faith,  gives  a  light  to  guide  us  in 
our  viezu  of  the  unioji  of  the  divine  and  the  human  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. The  incarnation  is  the  perfect  revelation  of  God ;  and  the 
revelation  of  divinity  as  God  in  Christ  was  the  end  of  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world.  The  first  creation  took  place  in  view  of  the 
second.  Only  in  view  of  this  could  there  be  a  world  of  finite 
moral  beings — could  man  be  created,  or  could  he  be  permitted  to 
fall.  The  union  of  divinity  and  humanity,  consequently,  though 
not  a  necessity  to  God,  zvas,  from  eternity,  a  moral  certainty.  So 
clear  has  this  become  in  modern  theological  thought,  that  the 
idea,  first  expressed  scientifically  by  Irenaeus  in  the  early  Church, 
and  re-affirmed  by  Osiander  in  the  times  of  the  Reformation 
— namely :  that  the  Son  of  God,  the  eternal  Logos,  zvould  have 
become  incarnate  even  if  man  had  not  fallen — ivould  have  been 
incarnate,  but  not  a  sufferer,  not  crucified — that  the  eternal  bless- 
edness which  is  now  secured  to  believers,  by  His  sufferings  as 
well  as  His  incarnation,  would  have  been  secured  for  the  whole 
human  race  without  suffering — is  widely  prevalent.  This  idea 
seems  to  be  favored  by  such  passages  as  these :  "  That  in  the  dis- 
pensation of  the  fullness  of  times  He  might  gather  together  in 
one  all  things  in  Christ,  both  which  are  in  heaven  and  which  are 
on  earth;  even  in  Him"  (Eph.  i.  lo) ;  "  Who  is  the  image  of  the 
invisible  God,  the  first-born  of  every  creature  ;  and  He  is  the 
Head  of  the  body,  the  Church  ;   who  is  the  beginning,  the  first- 

(371)   . 


3/2        THE    DIVINE   AND    THE    HUMAN    IN    THE   SCRIPTURES. 

born  from  the  dead ;  that  in  all  things  He  might  have  the  pre- 
eminence "  (Col.  i.  15  and  18);  "And  that  ye  put  on  the  new 
man,  which  after  God  is  created  in  righteousness  and  true  holi- 
ness "  (Eph.  iv.  24) ;  "  That  ye  put  on  the  new  man,  which  is 
renewed  in  knowledge  after  the  image  of  Him  that  created  him : 
where  there  is  neither  Greek  nor  Jew,  circumcision  nor  uncircum- 
cision,  barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  nor  free,  but  Christ  is  all  in  all 
(Col.  iii.  10,  II.)  The  advocates  of  this  idea  say  that  if  we  make 
the  glory  of  God  the  end  of  creation,  we  make  men  mere  transi- 
tion-points for  the  movement  of  God  towards  this  end,  and  thus 
favor  a  pantheistic  view  of  God.  If  we  make  human  salvation 
the  end,  we  make  the  Creator  exist  for  the  creature,  and  thus  de- 
debase  the  idea  of  God.  But  if  we  regard  Christ,  the  union  of  the 
divinity  and  hnnianitj',  the  end,  we  secure  the  idea  of  the  glory  of 
God  and  of  the  blessedness  of  the  creature — the  creative  compla- 
cency of  divinity  in  humanity,  and  the  rest  of  humanity  with  the 
adoring  satisfaction  in  divinity.  Now,  this  most  perfect,  this 
absolutely  perfect,  revelation  of  God  could  not  have  been  de- 
pendent on  the  action  of  man,  could  certainly  not  have  been 
suspended  on  his  sinful  action,  thus  making  sin  necessary  to  the 
highest  good.  The  revelation  of  the  eternal  Logos  is  the  rev- 
elation of  God ;  it  is  the  revelation  of  God,  of  Himself  to  Him- 
self, is  involved  in  the  self-consciousness  of  God;  and  it  is  the 
revelation  of  God  to  the  creature.  "  He  is  the  image  of  the 
invisible  God,"  "the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory,"  the  man- 
ifestation of  the  Deity,  "  the  first-born  of  every  creature,"  the 
prototype  of  humanity,  the  Mediator  between  the  uncreated  and 
the  created ;  "  For  by  Him  were  all  things  created  that  are  in 
heaven  and  that  are  in  earth,  visible  and  invisible,  whether  they 
be  thrones  or  dominions,  or  principalities,  or  powers  ;  all  things 
were  created  by  Him  and  for  Him;  and  He  is  before  all  things, 
and  by  Him  all  things  consist,"  or  subsist.  If  even  sin  had  not 
entered  the  world.  He  would  have  been  Mediator  between  crea- 
torship  and  creatureship,  and  would  have  reconciled  them.  As 
He  had  gone  forth  to  give  existence  to  beings  distinct  from  God, 
so  He  would  have  returned  with  these  creatures  into  union  with 
God;  would  have  become  incarnate  and  would  have  reconciled — 
brought  into  union  in  His  person — "all  things  that  are  in  heaven 
and  that  are  in  earth."  The  sin  of  man  did  not  prevent  this;  and 
in  this  the  Scriptures  place  the  emphasis  of  divine  love  for  us,  that 


DIVINE    INSPIRATION    AND    HUMAN    FREEDOM.  373 

though  "  He  was  in  the  form  of  God,  and  thought  it  not  rob- 
bery to  be  equal  with  God,  He  made  Himself  of  no  reputation, 
humbled  Himself,  and  became  obedient  unto  death,"  suffered 
to  redeem  man  and  reconcile  him  to  God  ;  consequently,  "  He 
is  the  Head  of  the  body,  the  Church;"  "the  beginning,  the 
first-born  from  the  dead."  Originally  the  prototype  of  human- 
ity, He  is  the  first  in  it  who  triumphs  over  death,  "  that  in  all 
things  He  might  have  the  pre-eminence."  "  For  it  pleased  the 
Father  that  in  Him  should  all  fullness  dwell  " — the  fullness  of 
divinity  and  humanity,  the  perfection  of  God  and  the  perfection 
of  man,  of  Creator  and  creature — that  He  should  be  the  union 
of  divinity  and  humanity,  should  be  the  perfect  revelation  of 
Deity,  the  end  for  which  all  things  are  made,  the  end  of  all 
divine  counsels  and  movements  ;  and  that  "  having  made  peace 
by  the  blood  of  His  cross,  by  Him  to  reconcile  all  things  unto 
Himself;  by  Him,  I  say,  whether  they  be  things  in  earth,  or 
things  in  heaven." 

Now  in  the  union  of  divinity  and  humanity  in  the  person  of 
Christ,  these  natures  remain  distinct,  and  the  human,  though  it 
is  united  with  the  divine,  has  a  free  and  untrammeled  develop- 
ment. Its  will  and  agency  are  not  suspended ;  it  does  not  cease 
to  be  a  free  human  nature ;  for  "  Christ  is  very  man  as  He  is 
very  God."  If  this,  the  absolutely  perfect  revelation,  could  be 
effected  by  a  union  of  divinity  and  humanity  in  which  the  integ- 
rity of  the  human  is  thus  preserved,  then  the  Spirit  who  goes 
forth  from  Christ — from  this  union  of  the  divine  and  the  human 
— to  inspire  men  to  exhibit  Christ,  to  testify  of  Him,  might  be 
expected  to  so  accommodate  Himself  to  them — permit  Him- 
self to  be  so  appropriated  by  them — that  He  would  use  them  not 
as  mere  mechanical  instruments,  would  not  play  upon  them  as 
flutes  and  organs,  not  as  dead,  impersonal  material  to  breathe 
through  or  to  strike  upon,  but  as  living,  personal,  free  spirits  ; 
and  to  preserve  all  the  qualities  of  their  true  humanity,  even  its 
innocent  infirmities,  and  thus  use  them  for  the  purpose  of  giv- 
ing a  revelation  suited  to  real  and  mere  human  beings,  suited  to 
man,  and  capable  of  being  apprehended  and  appropriated  by  him. 
He  would  limit  Himself  also  to  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ; 
He  would  communicate  facts,  would  tell  us  what  God  is  in  His 
relation  to  us,  what  He  requires  of  us,  and  what  He  has  done 
for  us.     He  would  not  teach  a  science  of  the  material  universe, 


374        THE    DIVINE    AND   THE    HUMAN    IN    THE    SCRIPTURES. 

which  can  only  be  learned  by  human  apprehension  of  necessary 
idea  and  fixed  law  ;  but  He  would  reveal  the  acts  of  will,  tell 
us  what  man  has  done  and  what  God  has  done,  and  will  do, 
which  can  be  le'arned  from  no  scientific  apprehension.  Science 
is  necessarily  a  natural  development ;  and  revelation  only  can 
tell — make  known — acts  of  the  divine  will.  Science  cannot  be 
miraculously  communicated.  This  is  as  impossible  as  it  is  un- 
necessary. God  has  made  man  to  learn  science ;  and  to  be 
receptive  of  Revelation.  Science  requires  certain  antecedent 
mental  developments  which  must  be  purely  human,  and  a 
knowledge  of  facts  which  man  must  observe.  Inspiration  could 
not  make  astronomy  and  geology  as  sciences  its  subjects.  The 
spirit  of  the  prophets — which  was  the  Spirit  of  Christ — would 
in  Moses  teach  only  the  fact  of  the  creation  and  evolution  of 
things  in  the  six  stages  of  creative  acts,  and  in  the  six  intervals 
of  evolution.  It  reveals  only  facts.  If  it  would  teach  them  in  a 
way  apprehensible  to  m.en  guided  by  the  impressions  of  the 
sense,  it  must  speak  of  things  as  they  would  appear  to  the  eye, 
and  not  as  they  are  cognized  by  the  thinking  mind  in  science. 
The  laws  of  nature  as  they  are  now  discovered  by  science,  if 
even  they  had  been  miraculously  announced,  could  not,  in  the 
days  of  the  Sacred  History,  have  been  apprehended  by  the 
greatest  genius  anymore  than  by  the  common  mind.  Whatever, 
therefore,  belongs  to  the  purely  human,  its  defects — in  scientific 
apprehension,  in  style,  in  testimony  to  historical  facts — would 
be  allowed,  and  yet  so  guided  that  the  revelation  would  be  a 
complete  guide  in  the  way  of  life  and  salvation.  The  human 
would  remain  human  elements,  but  they  would  be  used  and 
guided  by  the  divine  into  unerring  truth  in  the  revelation  of  the 
divine  salvation. 

§  2.   Tlie  Connection  between  Luther  s  View  of  the  Person  of  Christ 
and  Special  Revelation  or  Inspiration. 

The  principle  of  the  Reformation  sheds  light  upon  this,  as 
upon  all  the  elements  of  Christianity ;  and  we  should  never  lose 
sight  of  it  when  we  are  studying  the  Christian  idea  of  divine 
revelation  and  inspiration.  The  early  reformers  expected  all  im- 
provement, in  the  apprehension  of  doctrine,  from  the  appropriation 
of  the  evangelical  principle  of  faith.  It  was  their  idea  that  in 
proportion   as   the   Church   was  grounded  in  this  principle,  she 


LUTHER  S    VIEW    OF    DIVINE    REVELATION.  375 

would  have  more  correct  views,  a  more  perfect  conception  of 
God  and  man,  and  greater  power  to  apply  the  true  Christian  idea 
in  all  directions.  Luther  especially  applied  it  to  the  doctrine 
of  Revelation.  Dorner  thus  traces  the  connection  between 
Luther's  view  of  the  person  of  Christ  and  special  revelation : 
"  For  him  it  was  intensely  important  that  we  should  observe  how 
in  Christ  humanity  was  elevated  and  glorified.  In  his  estimation, 
revelation  itself  has  first  found  its  end  in  the  bringing  forth  of 
the  perfect  man,  the  Son  of  Man."  "  The  unity  of  the  person  of 
Christ,  in  which  God  and  man  are  united,  he  establishes  by  a 
remodeling  of  the  conception  of  God  and  man,  according  to  the 
standard  of  the  principle  of  faith!'  "  He  rejects  what  he  calls 
the  'Old  Wisdom,'  in  which  majesty,  omnipotence,  infinity,  were 
regarded  as  the  highest  and  innermost  in  God.  '  God  does  not 
regrard  it  sufficient  for  His  honor  that  He  is  Creator  of  all  crea- 
tures,  as  even  Jews  and  Turks  know  Him  to  be.  He  wishes  it 
also  to  be  known  what  He  inwardly  is.  His  glory  is  His  love, 
which  seeks  the  lowly  and  the  poor.  This  is  the  new  wisdom. 
God's  delight  in  the  incarnation  consists  in  this ;  He  has  therein 
poured  out  His  essence,  revealed  His  heart.  And  this  He  had 
already  resolved  before  sin  was  as  yet  anywhere.  "  In  the  old 
language "  creature  signifies  something  which  is  infinitely  dif- 
ferent from  the  highest  God-head ;  they  are  in  direct  opposition 
to  each  other.  But  in  the  new  language  or  wisdom,  humanity 
signifies  something  other  than  this — something  which  has  an 
entire  and  an  inexpressibly  close  connection  with  the  divinity — 
and  we  must  learn  in  a  new  tongue  to  express  the  new  wisdom.' 
He  accordingly  contends  for  a  true  development  of  the  humanity 
of  Christ;  he  'would  have  Him  in  His  infancy  a  real  babe,  lie 
upon  the  mother's  breast,  and  innocently  play  like  other  chil- 
dren.' The  tendency  of  Luther's  doctrine  of  revelation  is  '  to 
represent  God  to  us  as  living  and  comprehensible.  He  does 
not,  like  the  older  Mysticism,  regard  God  as  the  indeterminate, 
infinite  being,  which  is  everywhere,  but  nowhere  to  be  appre- 
hended. But  it  belongs  rather  to  God's  eternal  living  essence, 
that  He  form  Himself  into  a  movement,  through  which  He 
determines  Himself  in  Himself;  through  this  movement  there 
comes  forth  in  God  the  eternal  Word  of  God.  By  this  deter- 
mination, which  the  infinity  of  God  thus  gives  itself,  and  by 
which  it  becomes  apprehensible,  God  has  already  also  a  relation 


"^jG        THE    DIVINE   AND    THE    HUMAN    IN    THE    SCRIPTURES. 

to  the  world — especially  to  the  spiritual  world,  and  toward  a 
life  communion  with  it — for,  through  that  eternal  movement  and 
self-determination  in  Himself,  God  is  accessible  and  self-com- 
municating; as,  on  the  other  hand,  our  nature  has — yea,  is — 
also  an  original  susceptibility  for  God,  which  was  not  even  lost 
through  sin.  Humanity  is  a  material  which  yearns  for  forming 
at  the  hand  of  God  ;  it  would  and  can  receive  God  through 
God,  if  God  give  or  offer  Himself  But  now  that  eternal  form- 
ing of  God  in  Himself  cannot  suffice  us :  God  is  invisible, 
incomprehensible  to  man  in  his  present  sinful  state,  given  over 
as  he  is  to  the  visible.  God  must,  therefore,  make  Himself 
visible — apprehensible,  as  it  were — cosmic,  in  order  that  we  may 
have  Him.  This  was  done  in  the  incarnation.'  'This  is  now  a 
second  act  of  self-forming  of  God,  coming  still  nearer  to  the 
creature.  No  less,  finally,  does  the  Holy  Scripture,  the  word 
of  the  incarnate  Word,  have  power  and  essence  from  Him.' 
He  thus  escapes  the  old  mechanical  theory  of  inspiration. 
Luther  is  not  of  the  opinion  that  the  words  of  Scripture  were 
dictated  to  them  (the  sacred  writers)  by  the  Holy  Spirit ;  '  but 
the  knozvlcdge  of  the  Christian  salvation  and  its  economy  sprang 
from  the  Holy  Spirit  and  His  illumination,  which  were  vouch- 
safed to  the  Apostles  as  chosen  instruments,  and,  in  general,  to 
the  writers  of  the  Scriptures ;  and  herewith  has  the  divine  truth 
already  entered  into  human  form ;  and  God's  knowing  has 
become  the  innermost  personal  knowing  of  man.  This  union 
of  the  divine  and  human,  which,  in  its  cognitive  aspect,  is  not 
bound  exclusively  to  the  moral  and  religious  stage  of  the  sacred 
writers,  now  certainly  perpetuates  itself  also  during  the  act  of 
writing ;  but  in  this  human,  and  not  divine  act,  the  sacred  writers 
have  obtained  the  historical  material,  not  from  the  illumination 
of  the  Spirit,  but  in  a  historical  way,  though  they  sifted  it  by  the 
power  of  the  illuminating  Spirit  which  operated  upon  them ;  and 
according  to  the  measure  of  their  power,  ordered  and  arranged 
it  in  a  true  divine  illumination.'  Though  he  did  not  doubt 
the  genuineness  of  the  Epistle  of  James,  he  denies  its  canonicity 
and  persevered  in  that  denial.  He  occupied  a  somewhat  similar 
position  toward  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  and  toward  the 
Apocalypse,  though  at  a  later  date  (1545)  he  judged  somewhat 
more  favorably  of  the  latter.  Yea,  of  one  of  the  arguments  of 
the  Apostle  Paul   in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  he  says  it  is 


INSPIRATION    AND    THE    REFORMATION.  ^JJ 

too  weak  to  bear  probing.  He  has  no  difficulty  in  acknowl- 
edging that  in  external  things,  not  only  Stephen,  but  also  the 
writers  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  have  some  things  which  are 
not  accurate.  So  far  as  the  Old  Testament  is  concerned,  in  his 
opinion,  its  validit}^  is  not  destroyed  by  the  acknowledgment 
that  some  of  these  writings  have  passed  through  remodeling 
hands.  Of  what  account  would  it  be,  he  asks,  in  reference  to 
the  Pentateuch,  if  even  Moses  had  not  written  it  himself?  And 
in  reference  to  the  prophets  he  says  :  They  studied  Moses  and 
one  another ;  their  books  arose  while  they  recorded  their 
thoughts  suggested  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  though  these  good 
and  faithful  teachers  and  searchers  of  Scripture,  ev^en  have, 
sometimes,  brought  into  the  building,  wood,  hay,  stubble,  and 
not  always  pure  gold,  silver  and  precious  stones,  there  still 
remains  the  foundation ;  the  rest  the  fire  of  that  day  will  con- 
sume?' In  the  Old  Testament  he  esteems  especially  the  Book 
of  Genesis  most  highly ;  it  is  the  fountain  from  which  under  the 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  all  later  prophets  have  flowed. 
Among  the  Historical  Books,  the  books  of  the  Kings  are  far 
more  to  be  believed  than  the  Chronicles ;  Ecclesiastes  is  adul- 
terated ;  it  originates  not  with  Solomon,  etc.  Also  the  Book 
of  Esther,  he  does  not  regard  as  canonical." 

§  3.  TJic  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  is  Inseparable  from  the 
Principle  of  the  Reformation,  and,  consequently ,  belongs  to  the 
Groundzvork  of  the  Creed  and  of  Theology. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  Reformers  so  regarded  it,  and 
so  treated  it  in  the  structure  of  the  Augsburg  Confession.  They 
do  not  make  it  a  part  of  the  Creed,  because  it  is  one  of  the  ele- 
ments of  the  very  foundation  of  the  Creed.  Their  appeal  to 
the  Sacred  Scriptures  as  the  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice 
necessarily  involves  this.  They  were  as  sure  of  the  certainty 
as  they  were  of  the  intelligibility  of  the  Scriptures.  They  made 
them  the  only  appeal  in  the  question  of  the  truth  of  faith.  And 
this  must  ever  be  the  principle  of  Evangelical  Christians. 

As  the  miraculous  revelation  closed  with  the  apostolic  age,  an 
inspired  record  of  it  was  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  this 
revelation  unadulterated  and  for  its  certain  transmission  to  suc- 
ceeding ages.  A  revelation  from  God  can  be  regarded  certain 
and  obligatory  only  when  it  is  delivered  in  substantial  purity. 


378        THE    DIVINE   AND    THE    HUMAN    IN    THE    SCRIPTURES. 

Christianity  was  first  orally  communicated,  and  hence  could 
only  be  certain  to  and  obligatory  upon  persons  living  at  that 
period,  or  a  short  time  after  the  death  of  the  apostles,  unless 
there  had  been  provided  for  the  Church  a  succession  of  divinely 
inspired  men — at  least  one  in  every  age — or  there  had  been 
given  a  written  account  of  Christianity.  Christianity  would 
have  been  a  divine  revelation  to  those  to  whom  it  was  orally 
communicated,  if  not  a  single  book  of  the  New  Testament  had 
been  written,  and  it  was  such  for  some  time,  namely,  the  short 
period  before  these  books  were  published.  But  in  the  absence 
of  divinely  inspired  men,  it  could  not  have  been  a  revelation  to 
succeeding  ages.  It  could  only  be  such  if  every  succeeding 
age  could  be  certain  of  its  possessing  it  in  an  unadulterated 
form.  But  this  is  not  possible  on  the  supposition  of  its  having 
been  suspended  merely  on  oral  transmission.  Nor  would  there 
have  been  any  more  certainty  or  authority  in  uninspired  written 
transmission ;  because  the  writings  of  uninspired  men  could 
only  be  the  record  of  their  uninspired  oral  instructions  and 
therefore  could  not  possess  any  more  certainty  or  authority. 
Hence,  as  Christianity  is  professedly  certain  and  of  universal 
obligation,  we  may  naturally  look  for  infallibility  in  the  channel 
through  which  it  is  conveyed  to  all  for  whom  it  was  intended. 
This  is  involved  in  the  certainty  of  salvation  ;  in  the  assurance 
of  faith.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  would  point  men  to  the 
infallibility  of  the  visible  Church,  that  is,  to  the  infallibility  of 
the  Pope  and  the  Councils  as  the  basis  of  the  infallibility  of  the 
oral  tradition,  and  consequently  of  the  certainty  of  Christian 
doctrines  and  the  correctness  of  Christian  practices.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  formal  principle  of  the  Reformation  is  that  the 
Sacred  Scriptures  are  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  prac- 
tice ;  and,  consequently,  that  they  are  miraculously  inspired 
while  oral  tradition  is  not.  The  answer  to  the  questions.  Where 
is  this  infallibility  to  be  sought  in  its  purity  ?  How  may  we 
know  that  the  doctrine  of  this  salvation,  as  we  possess  it,  is  en- 
tirely the  revealed  doctrine  in  its  purity  ?  How  may  we  know 
that  we  may  base  upon  it  the  hope  of  our  salvation  ? — the 
principle  of  the  Reformation  answers  thus  :  While  God  has 
commissioned  His  Church — His  people — to  preach  the  gospel 
to  every  creature,  and  has  promised  that  this  proclamation  shall 
be  so  accompanied  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  to  make  it  efficacious 


THE    WORD    OF    GOD    AND    THE   SACRED    SCRIPTURES.  379 

for  the  production  of  saving  faith  in  the  souls  of  men,  and  de- 
clared it  to  be  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  all  them  that 
believe ;  He  has  also  given  the  inspired  Scriptures  as  the  stand- 
ard by  which  we  may  test  every  doctrine,  and  infallibly  know 
that  it  is  from  Him.  When  you  are  asked,  How  are  you  sure 
that  you  have  the  saving  truths  of  God's  revelation  in  their 
purity  ?  the  answer  is :  The  divinely  inspired  and  authorized 
apostles — the  men  to  whom  this  revelation  was  originally  given 
— did  themselves  also  reduce  the  truths  of  this  revelation,  the 
instructions  which  they  orally  communicated,  to  writing,  and 
that  in  this  written  form  they  have  reached  us  unimpaired.  In 
other  words,  Lutheran  Protestantism  teaches  that  Christianity 
is  certain  to  us,  and  obligatory  on  all  succeeding  generations, 
only  because  we  have  in  the  divinely  inspired  Scriptures  a 
standing  authority  and  an  infallible  test  by  which  we  know  its 
genuineness. 

The  principle  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation  did,  indeed,  as  we 
have  seen,  recognize  the  fact  that  the  truths  of  salvation — the 
gospel  of  Christ — may  come  to  men  in  other  forms  than  the 
written  record  of  it,  that  the  word  may  in  other  forms  also  be  a 
means  of  grace  producing  saving  faith.  But  in  the  inspired 
written  form  it  is  the  only  rule  of  that  faith.  The  Reformers, 
consequently,  distinguished  between  the  word  of  God  and  the 
Sacred  Scriptures.  By  the  former  they  meant  pre-eminently 
the  means  of  grace,  the  instrument  by  which  the  Holy  Ghost 
works  faith  in  us  ;  by  the  latter,  the  only  and  the  infallible 
standard  of  faith.  When  they  call  the  word  of  God  the  external, 
the  literal  word,  they  mean  only  to  designate  it  as  objective  and 
written  in  contradistinction  to  the  internal  word  or  light  of  the 
fanatics  of  the  day.  They  did  not — as  was  done  at  a  later  day 
in  both  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed  Church — make  the  word  of 
God  and  Sacred  Scriptures  identical. 

There  does  seem  to  be  a  distinction  between  the  inspiration 
of  the  doctrines  and  the  inspiration  of  the  books  of  the  Bible, 
between  the  word  of  God  and  the  sacred  records  of  that  word, 
yet  this  distinction  needs  to  be  carefully  guarded  against  abuse. 
"  But,"  says  Oosterzee,  very  properly,  "  While  the  distinction 
between  Holy  Scriptures  and  the  Word  of  God,  must  be  ob- 
served, the  union  between  them  must  also  be  maintained."  "  As 
Holy  Scripture,  on  the  one  hand,  contains  the  word  of  God,  i.  e., 


3S0        THE    DIVINE    AND    THE    HUMAN    IN    THE   SCRIPTURES. 

the  divine  revelation — so  may  Scripture  in  its  totality,  on  the 
other,  be  termed  the  Word  of  God  in  consequence  of  the  Theo- 
pneustia  of  its  writers."  "  On  both  sides  there  is  need  for 
caution,  lest  the  two  sides  of  the  same  thing  should  be  opposed 
to  each  other  as  in  irreconcilable  contrast.  The  statement,  '  The 
Bible  is  God's  word,'  brings  into  the  foreground  the  higher 
unity  of  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  the  counter  statement,  '  the  Bible 
contains  God's  word,'  brings  into  the  foreground  its  manifest 
diversity.  It  contains  the  word  of  God,  because  it  is  the  record 
of  that  which  God  has  spoken  to  man,  as  well  in  deeds  as  in 
words ;  it  is,  taken  in  its  entirety,  God's  word,  because  it  is 
notably  the  work  of  one  spirit,  which  in  different  measure  ani- 
mated the  inspired  writers,  and  which  is  the  higher  bond  even 
between  the  most  different  parts.  But  the  formula, 'the  Bible 
is  God's  word,'  must  never  be  taken  in  such  a  way  as  to  mean 
that  every  single  word  in  the  Bible  is  a  word  of  God  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  expression.  Words  of  men,  yea,  of  devils, 
as  well  as  of  God,  are  to  be  read  in  the  Bible,  although  certainly 
written  under  divine  guidance.  All  in  the  Bible  which  is  plainly 
seen  to  be  a  constituent  part  of  divine  revelation  is  God's  word ; 
and  again,  the  Bible  itself  is  God's  word,  because — and  in  so  far 
as — the  Spirit  of  God  addresses  us  here  as  nowhere  else.  Both 
statements  are  thus  true,  when  they  are  allowed  to  stand  side 
by  side;  but  cease  to  be  pure  and  just  expressions  of  the  truth, 
as  soon  as  they  are  opposed  to  each  other.  The  proposition  : 
'  The  Bible  contains  God's  zvord,'  is  most  in  liarmony  xvitJi  the 
spirit  of  the  Holy  Scripture,  and  also  preferable  on  account  of  its 
greater  perspicuity.  The  proposition :  '  The  Bible  is  God's 
word,'  points  to  the  divine  origin  of  the  Holy  Scripture  as  a 
whole,  but  it  may — as  applied  to  particular  parts — very  easily 
lead  to  misunderstanding.  Here  the  accurate  remark  of 
Lange  is  in  place :  '  Every  single  statement  is  susceptible  of 
misconception  ;  the  Bible  in  its  totality  can,  however,  be  misun- 
derstood, and  become  a  rock  of  offense,  only  in  the  case  of  a 
spirit  more  or  less  estranged  from  it.  In  this  it  may  be  com- 
pared to  the  creation.  The  one-sided  observer  of  the  single 
forms  thereof,  may  become  a  criticizer  of  the  order  of  nature,  or 
a  Polytheist ;  but  for  him  who  allows  the  spirit  of  creation,  as  a 
whole,  to  speak  to  his  spirit,  the  revelation  of  God  in  nature  will 
disclose  itself  ever  more  clearly.     So  it  is  with  the  higher  revela- 


DIVINE    AUTHORITY   OF   APOSTOLIC    WRITINGS.  38 1 

tion  of  God  in  the  Holy  Scripture.  In  its  unity,  it  is  as  clear  as 
sunlight — a  sparkling  crystal  of  the  revelation  and  recognition 
of  God.'  Let  us  add,  precisely  in  this  its  at  once  divine  and 
human  character  is  manifest,  the  analogy  between  the  Scriptures 
and  the  Christ.  But  precisely  therein  lies  also  the  reason  why 
the  origin  and  composition  of  the  Scriptures  have  for  us,  no  less 
than  the  person  of  the  Lord — along  with  so  much  that  is  clear 
— also  their  mysterious  side,  and,  like  the  latter,  remain  the 
object  of  continued  research." 

But  while  the  Reformers  doubtless  did  recognize  this  distinc- 
tion, they  regarded  the  divine  authority  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures 
in  the  same  light  as  they  did  the  oral  instructions  of  the  apostles 
and  as  equally  infallible.  They  considered  the  apostles  as  fully 
inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost  when  they  recorded  their  testimony 
concerning  the  truths  of  salvation  as  when  they  orally  com- 
municated them.  They  believed  that  the  expressions  contained 
in  their  writings  no  less  than  their  oral  utterances,  are  infallible 
testimonies  of  God ;  that  they  were  instructed  what  and  hov/ 
they  should  write,  in  their  office  as  organs  of  divine  revelation, 
as  well  as  what  and  how  they  should  speak  in  their  oral  procla- 
mation of  the  divine  offer  of  salvation  to  men,  by  an  extra- 
ordinary divine  influence.  In  regard  to  the  books  written  by 
the  apostles  themselves  there  could  be  no  doubt  of  this,  as  it 
would  be  in  the  highest  degree  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  oral 
instructions  of  a  divinely  inspired  teacher  should  cease  to  have 
this  character  of  infallibility,  the  moment  he  should  attempt  to 
reduce  them  to  writing.  The  divine  authority  of  the  apostolical 
books  is,  therefore,  an  inevitable  consequence  of  the  divine  au- 
thority of  the  apostolic  teachers  of  Christianity.  The  rejection 
of  the  former  is  inevitably  connected  with  a  step  toward  the 
rejection  of  the  latter.  These  remarks  do  not,  indeed,  apply  to 
the  writings  of  Mark  and  Luke  as  they  were  not  apostles.  But 
as  these  writers  were  companions  of  apostolic  men;  as  they,  in  all 
probability  wrote  with  the  'sanction  and  under  the  eyes  of  Peter 
and  Paul ;  and  as  what  they  wrote  is  in  perfect  harmony  with 
the  writings  of  these  apostles,  they  may  be  said,  to  be  inspired 
in  the  sense  of  what  has  been  called  inspiratio  consequens,  and 
may  be  regarded  as  of  divine  authority.  The  divine  authority  of 
the  Old  Testament  rests  upon  that  of  the  New,  as  it  is  acknowl- 
edged by  Christ  and   His   apostles   to   be  a  divine  revelation. 


382        THE    DIVINE    AND    THE    HUMAN    IN    THE    SCRIPTURES. 

The  divine  authority  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  is,  thus, 
clearly  connected  with  faith  in  Christ,  and  is  to  be  regarded  as 
inseparable  from  the  principle  of  the  Reformation. 

§  4.   The  Theory  of  The  Inspiration  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures. 

While  there  has  been  a  very  general  agreement  among  Chris- 
tians in  regard  to  the  divine  authority  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures, 
there  has  been  much  difference  respecting  the  degree  and  mode 
of  their  inspiration.  In  the  early  ages  of  the  Church,  some  re- 
garded every  idea,  sentence,  word  and  letter  in  the  Bible,  as 
penned  by  the  immediate  dictation  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The 
prophets  and  apostles  were  regarded  as  purely  passive  subjects 
in  the  process  of  inspiration ;  as  related  to  the  Holy  Spirit  like 
the  amanuensis  to  the  dictator — yea,  like  the  lyre  to  the  plec- 
trum, the  dead  mechanical  instrument  to  the  musician  who 
plays  upon  it.  At  the  Reformation,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case 
of  Luther,  the  hi/man  element  in  the  inspired  writings  was  more 
fully  recognized.  But  soon  after,  views  similar  to  those  of  the 
early  fathers  were  generally  entertained  by  the  divines  of  our 
Church  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  Musaeus 
did,  indeed,  venture  to  doubt  the  inspiration  of  every  word,  but 
he  was  soon  induced,  by  the  storm  of  opposition  to  it,  to  recant 
his  assertion.  Calixtus,  the  most  learned  theologian  of  his  day, 
represented  inspiration  as  a  mere  assistance  and  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  for  it  was  declared  heretical. 

When  this  mechanical  theory  lost  its  hold  upon  the  theologi- 
cal mind,  the  Rationalists  passed  to  the  opposite  extreme,  deny- 
ing the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  altogether,  while  they  still 
profess  to  believe  in  a  providential  divine  origin  of  Christianity. 
And  even  some  otherwise  evangelical  divines  of  Germany — as 
the  distinguished  thinker,  Rothe — while  they  seem  heartily  and 
unreservedly  to  believe  in  a  miraculous  divine  origin  of  Chris- 
tianity, do  not  consider  the  denial  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Sacred 
Books,  inconsistent  with  that  belief  The  great  body  of  divines 
in  the  last  century,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Knapp,  "  pre- 
ferred a  medium  course,  and  adopted  for  the  most  part  the 
theory  of  Claude  Frassen."  This  theory  recognized  "three  de- 
grees in  inspiration:"  The  first,  "the  revelation  of  things  be- 
fore unknown" — inspiratio  antecedens  the  second,  "security 
against    error,"    "  in    exhibiting    doctrines    and    facts,"    already 


THE   TRUE   CONCEPTION    OF    INSPIRATION.  383 

known  —  inspiratio  concomitans ;  the  third,  "divine  authority 
stamped  upon  writings  originally  composed  without  inspiration  " 
— inspiratio  consequens.  "  Others  deemed  it  sufficient  to  show 
that  the  prophets  and  apostles  enjoyed  a  higher  divine  assistance 
and  support.  They  were  induced  in  various  ways,  sometimes 
by  natural  means,  and  sometimes  by  immediate  divine  direction, 
to  write  the  Sacred  Books.  They  always  wrote,  as  well  as 
spoke,  as  persons  enjoying  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God." 

Thus  while  we  have,  in  the  present  century,  the  almost  univer- 
sal rejection — at  least  outside  of  the  English  world — of  the  me- 
chanical theory;  we  have  almost  every  degree  of  what  has  been 
called  the  dynamical  theory.  We  hold  that  every  true  theory 
must  be  required  to  be  consistent  with  the  plenary  inspiration 
of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  with  the  inspiration  of  all  the  parts, 
the  little  things  as  well  as  the  great,  of  the  words  as  well  as  of 
the  thoughts.  And  while  the  divine  element  in  the  Bible  must 
not  be  regarded  as  excluding  the  human  element,  it  must  still  be 
regarded  as  operating  miraculously  in  and  upon  human  nature 
in  the  work  of  inspiration,  and  as  thus  producing  a  new  source 
of  knowledge  in  religion  for  mankind.  Though  it  belongs  to 
the  acts  of  the  second  creation,  and,  consequently,  is  conditioned 
by  the  existence  of  the  first  creation,  and  operates  in  connection 
with  the  subject's  existence  and  nature  ;  yet  it  is  real  creation  :  it 
produces  something  entirely  new,  is  a  new  origination,  a  species 
of  knowledge  which,  without  this  act  of  inspiration,  not  only 
could  not  have  been  attained  by  humanity  alone,  but  could  not 
have  been  discovered  even  by  the  general  revelation  which  God 
makes  to  men  in  creation  and  providence. 

The  true  conception  seems  to  be,  that  the  apostles  had 
the  same  kind  and  the  same  degree  of  assistance  in  their 
written  as  in  their  oral  instruction,  and  that  they  were  as 
much  required  to  use  their  natural  powers  and  to  avail 
themselves  of  natural  means  of  information  in  the  former  as 
in  the  latter ;  and  that  they  did,  on  the  other  hand,  as  cer- 
tainly in  the  former  as  the  latter,  receive  aid  of  any  and  every 
kind  which  might  be  necessary  to  give  infallibility  to  their 
written  as  well  as  to  their  oral  instructions.  While,  therefore, 
we  reject  or  rather  modify  the  mere  mechanical  theory,  we  must 
still  uphold  what  seemed  to  be  the  chief  interest  in  the  mainte 
nance   of    that  theory,   namely,  tlie  plenary  inspiration   of   the 


384        THE    DIVINE    AND    THE    HUMAN    IN    THE   SCRIPTURES. 

Scriptures,  as  exteiiding  to  words  as  well  as  tilings.  And  on  the 
other  hand,  this  must  be  so  far  modified  by  the  dynamical  theory 
as  to  be  consistent  with  the  varieties  of  style,  tlie  discrepancies,  etc. 
which  have  been  noticed  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  There  must 
be  diversities  in  the  Scriptures,  because  they  are  written  in  dif- 
ferent ages  and  by  different  men.  If  inspiration  so  interfered 
with  the  style  of  the  writer  as  to  make  it  different  rhetorically 
and  grammatically  from  his  style  of  writing,  or  from  the  usus 
loquendi  of  his  age  and  country,  it  would  be  impossible  to  prove 
the  genuineness  of  the  Sacred  Books,  as  that  depends  in  a  great 
measure  upon  the  peculiarities  of  style  and  dialect  of  the  class 
of  persons  to  which  the  writer  belongs,  of  the  place  where  and 
of  the  time  when  he  lived.  If  inspiration  interfered  with  the 
manner  in  which  witnesses  in  particular  circumstances  usually 
bear  testimony  to  historical  facts,  we  could  not  determine  the 
authenticity  of  the  Sacred  Books,  could  not  know  whether  they 
state  real  facts ;  because  that  depends  upon  our  being  able  to 
apply  the  laws  of  historical  evidence  to  the  testimony  of  these 
witnesses.  In  short,  the  divine  elemeiit  in  the  inspired  books 
must  not  destroy  or  shnt  out  the  human.  The  Bible  must  be  a 
human  as  well  as  a  divine  book. 

The  true  view  we  take  to  be  this  :  The  Bible,  zvith  all  its 
ideas  and  all  its  zvords,  is  God's  book  of  revelation ;  that  is.  He  so 
moved,  influenced,  controlled  and  used  the  faculties,  the  mode  of 
thought,  and  the  style  of  language  of  the  sacred  zvriters,  as  to  make 
them  His  organs  through  zvhich  to  give  a  ivritten  revelation  of  His 
Word,  of  the  plan  of  salvation.  They  did  not  speak  as  they  were 
dictated  to,  but  they  did  speak  as  they  zuere  moved  by,  the  Holy 
Ghost.  It  is,  therefore,  emphatically  His  book,  divine  and  in- 
fallible. But  as  these  organs  are  not  dead  and  mechanical 
things,  but  living  and  personal  spirits,  He  does  not  use  them 
mechanically,  as  mere  mechanisms  are  used  ;  not  as  the  musi- 
cian does  his  instrument ;  but  dynamically,  moving  and  influ- 
encing, elevating  and  guiding  them ;  so  that  while  the  Bible 
becomes  in  its  totality  the  infallible  and  divine  record  of  saving 
truth  to  the  world,  it  has  these  truths  in  human  forms  of  thought, 
in  human  language,  and  in  the  style  which  is  peculiar  to  the 
individual  writers.  As  the  Bible  is  addressed  to  human  beings, 
God  must,  through  the  organs  which  He  employs,  speak  to 
them  in  a  human  manner,  in   human  language ;  and   His  book 


THE    NECESSITY    OF   THE    HUMAN    ELEMENT.  385 

must  have  the  variety  of  style  of  the  several  writers  whom  He 
inspires  to  write  it.  While  He  influences  and  moves,  guides 
and  controls  the  thoughts  and  style  of  the  writer,  so  as  to  com- 
municate the  new  and  supernatural  truth,  and  to  make  the 
writing  divine  as  well  as  human — -an  infallible  source  of  truth 
and  a  sure  guide  in  the  way  of  salvation— he  must  still  not 
destroy  its  human  characteristics.  As  it  is  to  be  understood  by 
human  beings,  its  language  must  be  capable  of  being  interpreted 
according  to  the  laws  of  human  language  ;  and  as  its  testimony 
is  to  be  received  by  human  beings,  it' must  be  given  in  accord- 
ance with  the  mode  or  manner  of  sincere  human  witnesses,  and 
must  have  the  ordinary  characteristics  of  credible  human  testi- 
mony. It  must  be  such  as  can  be  tried  by  those  laws  of  human 
testimony,  which  are  based  upon  the  constitution  which  the 
creative  hand  of  God  has  given  to  the  human  mind.  Accord- 
ing to  this  description  of  plenary  inspiration,  it  is  perfectly  con- 
sistent with  the  varieties  of  style,  the  little  discrepancies  and 
inaccuracies,  which  some  think  they  see  in  minor  details  of  his- 
torical circumstances,  etc.  These,  if  they  are  only  like  those 
which  accompany  all  sincere  testimony  given  by  different  per- 
sons, we  conceive  to  be  perfectly  consistent,  not  only  with  the 
authenticity,  but  with  the  inspiration  of  the  sacred  writers.  If 
the  Divine  Spirit,  on  the  other  hand,  had  so  controlled  the  styles 
of  these  writers,  that  they  would  manifestly  have  been  quite 
unlike  what  we  would  have  reason  to  expect  was  their  ordinary 
style,  or  the  style  of  these  men  at  that  time  and  in  their  cir- 
cumstances— we  could  not  have  interpreted  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures ;  and,  consequently,  they  would  not  have  been  a  revelation 
to  us.  At  the  same  time,  these  books  would  have  lacked  one 
of  the  most  important  evidences  of  genuineness,  namely,  that 
of  the  peculiarities  of  the  style.  It  was,  therefore,  necessary,  in 
order  to  make  it  a  style  suitable  for  the  communication  of  truth 
to  us,  and  evidential  of  genuineness  and  authenticity,  to  let  it 
remain  the  style  peculiar  to  the  sacred  writers  themselves,  with, 
indeed,  that  peculiar  elevation  which  the  grandeur  of  the  subject 
and  the  spirituality  which  the  quickening  and  enlightening  of 
the  spirit  would  necessarily  produce;  but  also,  with  all  the 
grammatical  imperfections,  and  all  the  rhetorical  blemishes, 
which  were  ordinarily  characteristic  of  the  style  of  those  men. 
If  the  Holy  Spirit  had  so  controlled  the  minds  of  the  sacred 
25 


386        THE    DIVINE   AND    THE    HUMAN    IN    THE   SCRIPTURES, 

witnesses,  that,  in  addition  to  securing  agreement  in  the  sub- 
stance of  the  story  which  they  tell,  it  had  secured  agreement  in 
all  the  details,  they  would  have  been  led  to  be  so  different  from 
other  truthful  witnesses,  that  they  would  not  have  been  believed. 
In  giving  their  testimony  in  regard  to  the  facts  of  the  sacred 
history — in  regard,  for  example,  to  the  life  and  teachings,  the 
miracles  and  sufferings,  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ — 
there  would  have  been  none  of  those  little  inaccuracies  or  of 
those  slight  discrepancies  which  usually  accompany,  and  which 
are  expected  to  accompany,  the  testimony  of  really  sincere  and 
honest  witnesses.  And  in  that  case  we  could  not  have  tested  the 
validity  of  the  testimony  of  the  sacred  witnesses  ;  that  is,  we 
could  not  have  applied  to  it  the  true  and  only  laws  of  testimony. 
And,  indeed,  we  could  not  have  received  it ;  for  if  it  had  been 
unattended  by  these  characteristics,  it  would  have  had  to  be 
pronounced  the  result  of  collusion  among  them ;  and,  conse- 
quently, rejected  as  false.  The  inspiration  of  'the  Scriptures 
must  be  consistent  with  their  being  capable  of  bearing  the  marks 
of  authenticity,  and  with  their  being  in  such  forms  of  thought 
and  language  that  they  can  be  understood  by  men ;  and,  conse- 
quently, all  the  natural  chai^acteristics  of  the  liiuiian  element,  used 
by  the  spirit  of  inspiration,  will  be  preserved  and  manifested  in 
giving  a  revelation ;  zvhile  they  will,  at  the  same  time,  be  so  gidded 
that  the  truths  of  salvation  shall  be  infallibly  expressed.  The  Chris- 
tian idea  of  God  and  man,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  so  pow- 
erfully enforced  by  Luther,  will  help  us  receive  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  as  truly  inspired  and  infallible ;  for  it  will  enable  us 
to  see  the  perfect  consistency  of  the  doctrine  of  plenary  inspi- 
ration with  the  existence  of  those  very  characteristics  which 
are  so  constantly  pointed  to  by  the  enemies  of  revelation,  as 
inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  inspiration. 

§  5.    Whatever  Theory  of  Inspiration    We  Adopt,  We  Must  Hold 
Fast  to  its  Miraculous  Character. 

Inspiration  is  a  miracle,  and  though  it  is  consistent  with  and 
uses  the  first,  it  is  a  second  creation,  and,  consequently,  miracu- 
lous. The  necessity  of  recognizing  the  divine  element,  the 
supernatural,  superhuman  element,  the  special  vuraculous  divine 
influence  in  the  Bible,  cannot  consistently  be  denied  by  any  who 
acknowledge  the  indestnictibility  of  the  Bible,  and  at  the  same  time 


THE    MIRACULOUS    CHARACTER    OF    INSPIRATION.  387 

believe  in  a  personal  God.  As  certainly  as  the  creation  of  the 
zuorld  zvas  a  miracle,  so  certainly  is  the  Bible  the  result  of  viiracu- 
lojis  inflnence.  And  though  God  in  this  second  creation  used 
the  instrumentahty  of  men,  and  must  be  supposed  to  use  them 
as  personal  spiritual  organs.,  instruments  not  simply  to  be  played 
upon,  but  instruments  which  shall  receive  and  appropriate,  at 
the  same  time  that  they  become  organs  of  the  revelation  which 
He  gives,  yet  He  produces  something  new — something  that 
humanity  itself  could  not  produce,  and  something  which  His 
ordinary  influence  upon  man  does  not  produce.  The  writer  has 
at  this  very  moment  received  a  review  of  a  work  which  has  just 
left  the  press,  in  which  the  author  says :  "  I  do  not  care  how 
many  errors,  mistakes,  discrepancies,  mis-statements,  the  Bible 

may  have I  only  wonder  there  is  so  little  of  grotesque, 

inexplicable,  contradictory Here  is  the  world  such  as  it 

is,  and  here  is  the  Bible  just  what  it  always  was,  stronger  than  it 
ever  was,  as  ineradicable  as  the  earth,  as  irrepressible  as  the 
atmosphere."  This  is  true,  but  the  Bible  is  thus  "ineradicable 
and  irrepressible,"  because  of  its  miraculous  divine  origination; 
and  because  man  was  made  for  it,  and  it  for  man.  It  so  com- 
bines the  divine  and  the  human  that  it  is  the  creature  of  God ; 
and  yet  it  is  so  suited  to  the  first  creation  as  the  completion  of 
it,  so  adapted  to  the  wants  of  sinful  man,  that  it  will  always  find 
souls  impressible  by  it,  seekers  after  salvation,  to  whom  it  will 
authenticate  itself,  and  who  will  submit  to  its  authority  as  to 
the  authority  of  a  special  divine  revelation.  It  will  exist  as  long 
as  there  is  a  soul  needing  salvation,  and  capable  of  being  saved. 
When,  therefore,  this  author  says  :  "  The  Bible  is  the  work  of 
God  just  in  the  same  sense  in  which  the  world  is  His  work," 
then  only  the  Pantheist  can  say  that  the  Bible  is  a  natural  pro- 
duction ;  for  the  Theist,  who  believes  that  the  world  was  origin- 
ated by  a  miracle,  that  it  is  God's  work  in  the  sense  of  its  being 
the  effect  of  supernatural,  superhuman  power — must  say  that  the 
Bible  is  a  special,  a  miraculous  work  of  God.  Just  as  there  is 
the  creative  element  in  the  existence  of  the  world,  so  there  is  a 
creative  element  in  the  production  of  the  Bible.  It  will  not  do 
for  any  but  Pantheists  to  reject  the  inspiration  of  the  Scripture, 
on  the  ground  that  "  it  is  as  impossible  to  define  the  work  of 
God  in  the  Bible  as  it  is  to  define  it  in  the  world;"  for  the  Theist 
does  define  the  work  of  God  in .  the  world,  in  that  he  defines  its 


388        THE    DIVINE   AND    THE    HUMAN    IN    THE    SCRIPTURES. 

origination  as  an  act  of  creation,  a  miracle ;  and  so  he  defines 
the  work  of  God  in  the  Bible  as,  in  its  origination,  a  special,  a 
miraculous  act.  It  is  true  that  "  He  did  not  turn  author,  and 
write  a  treatise,  any  more  than  He  turned  mechanic,  and  carved 
a  tree."  He  did  not  " carve  trees  "  in  making  the  world;  but 
He  did  originate  it  by  a  miraculous  act ;  and  He  did  not  "  write 
a  treatise "  when  He  produced  the  Bible,  but  still  He  did 
originate  it  by  miraculous  influence.  Only  the  Pantheist  can 
follow  the  author  in  saying,  "  All  Scripture  that  is  profitable  for 
doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  instruction  in  righteousness,  is  given  by 
inspiration  of  God.  Holy  men  of  old  spake  (as  they  were) 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  men  of  to-day  speak  moved  by 

the  Holy  Ghost But  while  the  proof  of  the  rigid,  plenary, 

mechanical,  miraculous  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  is  nowhere 
found  in  the  Bible,  or  out  of  it,  the  proof  of  their  real  inspira- 
tion, of  the  fact  that  they  come  from  above  and  not  from  below, 
is  found  in  their  very  existence,  entirely  apart  from  anything 
they  say."  But  then  the  author  would  find  that  the  Pantheist 
means  by  "  doctrine,"  "  righteousness,"  "  inspiration,"  "  holy," 
"  Holy  Ghost,"  "  above,"  "  below,"  something  radically  different 
from  what  the  Bible  teaches  on  such  subjects.  But  while  the 
Bible  does  nowhere  teach  a  "  mechanical"  inspiration,  yet  "proof 
of  the  rigid,  plenary,  miraculous  inspiration"  is  certainly  found 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  To  say,  as  does  this  author,  that  the 
writers  of  the  four  gospels  "assume  no  other  authority  than  any 
man  assumes  who  undertakes  to  write  the  life  of  the  friend  and 
teacher  with  whom  he  has  been  in  daily  intimate  communion, 
and  whom  he  has  held  in  immeasurable  honor  and  love;"  that 
"  the  inspiration  claimed  by  the  sacred  writers  is  altogether 
natural,"  is  utterly  untenable;  for  they  had  the  promise  of  super- 
natural inspiration  from  Jesus. 

The  remarks  of  Oosterzee  are  a  sufficient  refutation  of  this 
position,  and  a  suitable  close  to  this  section.  "  It  has  been  said 
{a)  that  the  sacred  writers  do  not  speak  of  their  inspiration, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  now  and  then  make  references  to  their 
authorities  (Luke  i.  1-4).  Just  as  though  to  be  silent  were  here 
the  same  thing  as  to  deny,  and  such  a  guidance  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  we  have  indicated  forbade  the  use  of  trustworthy  doc- 
uments ! — as  though  the  sacred  writers  do  not  i/^ake  manifest 
their  inspiration,  and  would  not  have  called  forth  a  well-merited 


OBJECTIONS    TO    INSPIRATION    FULLY    ANSWERED.  389 

distrust,  had  they  testified  of  it  in  so  many  words  (John  viii.  13). 
We  are  reminded  (V?)  that  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was 
made  and  fulfilled,  not  exclusively  to  the  apostles,  but  to  all 
believers  ;  and,  at  least,  was  not  personally  addressed  to  the 
fellow-helpers  of  the  Lord's  first  witnesses — Mark,  Luke,  and 
others.  We  shall  not  reply  to  this  objection  by  a  sharp  dis- 
tinction between  ordinary  and  extraordinary  gifts  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  which  is  nowhere  made  in  the  gospel  itself;  but  we  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  Spirit 
must  work  most  abundantly  in  those  who  stood  closest  to  Jesus, 
and  had  in  addition  received  the  highest  work  to  accomplish  ; 
at  the  same  time,  also,  nothing  forbids  us  to  suppose,  as  among 
others  Witsius  did,  a  difference  of  degree  in  the  inspiration  of 
the  different  witnesses  to  the  same  gospel,  {c)  We  are  pointed 
to  the  difference,  iuUr  se,  of  the  various  prophetic  and  apostolic 
doctrinal  ideas  (lehrbegriffe) ;  and  this  is  a  peculiarity  we  do  not 
wish  simply  to  ignore.  It  is  an  inseparable  consequence  of  the 
difference  of  dispensation,  of  individuality,  of  circumstances  ; 
and  is  one  proof  the  more  that  the  Holy  Spirit  has  guided 
them,  not  only  with  the  highest  freedom,  but  also  with  the 
highest  wisdom.  Only  then  would  the  difference  cause  us 
anxiety,  if  it  could  be  shown  that  the  one  proclaimed  to  us  what 
amounted  to  another  gospel  than  that  proclaimed  by  the  other. 
As  it  is,  we  owe  precisely  to  this  diversity  the  infinite  fulness 
and  the  higher  unity  of  the  Scriptures,  {d)  Errors  and  inaccu- 
racies, in  matters  of  subordinate  importance,  are,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  undoubtedly  to  be  found  in  the  Bible.  A  Luther, 
a  Calvin,  a  Coccejus,  among  the  older  theologians;  a  Tholuck, 
a  Neander,  a  Lange,  a  Stier,  among  the  more  modern  ones,  have 
admitted  this  without  hesitation.  But  this  is  absolutely  nothing 
against  the  truth  and  authority  of  God's  Word,  where  it  is 
speaking  of  the  way  of  salvation." 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE  RELATION  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT,  IN  THE  PRODUCTION  OF 
ASSURANCE  OF  SALVATION,  TO  THE  WORD  AND  SACRAMENTS 
AS  MEANS  OF  GRACE,  VIEWED  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  IDEA 
REQUIRED    BY    THE    PRINCIPLE    OF    THE    REFORMATION. 

§  I.  Inseparable  Connection  of  the  Means  of  Grace  and  Immedi- 
ate Divine  Influences. 

The  direct  access  of  the  soul  to  God  in  Christ,  the  immediate 
communion  of  the  beh'ever  with  God,  the  witness  of  the  spirit 
in  the  assurance  of  salvation  by  faith,  in  short,  all  the  exercises 
which,  according  to  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  are  in- 
volved in  regeneration  and  sanctification — the  very  nature  and 
necessities  of  faith — require  the  idea  both  of  divinely  appointed 
means  of  grace  and  of  immediate  operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
This  is  well  expressed  in  the  language  of  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession :  "  Through  the  instrumentality  of  the  Word  and  Sacra- 
ments, the  Holy  Spirit  is  given,  who,  when  and  where  it  pleases 
God,  works  faith  in  those  who  hear  the  gospel,  namely,  that 
God,  for  Christ's  sake,  and  not  on  account  of  any  merit  in  us, 
justifies  those  who  believe  that  they  are  received  into  favor  for 
Christ's  sake." 

The  Lutheran  divines  often  include  Word  and  Sacrament  in 
the  one  idea  of  the  Word,  inasmuch  as  sacramentum  was  often 
called  verbinn  visibile.  We  will  use  it  in  the  same  way.  And 
here  attempt  not  to  give  an  exposition  of  the  means  of  grace — 
which  belongs  to  the  system — but  only  to  turn  attention  to  the 
one  point  above  indicated.  The  Reformers  endeavored  to  apply 
the  principle  of  the  Reformation  to  this  subject.  They  distin- 
guished the  divine  Word  revealed  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures 
as  law  and  gospel,  commandment  and  promise.  By  law  they 
meant  the  Decalogue,  by  gospel  the  promise  of  grace  which 
was  promulgated  in  the  Scriptures  from  the  fall  of  man  down  ; 
the  one  as  condemning  and  convicting  of  sin,  the  other  offering 
peace  and  life. 


COMMON    OPPOSITION    TO    THE    ROMISH    IDEA.  39I 

§  2.   TJie  General  Agreement  of  the  Protestants  respecting  the 
Means  of  Grace. 

In  opposition  to  the  Roman  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  media- 
tion of  grace  through  the  visible  Church,  and,  especially  through 
the  priesthood  and  its  functions,  the  Protestants  with  one  accord, 
declared  the  Word  of  God  and  the  Sacraments  to  be  the  only 
means  of  grace. 

On  this  point  both  of  the  great  branches  of  the  Reformation 
wer-e  agreed.  The  Augsburg  Confession,  as  already  quoted, 
says:  "Through  the  Word  and  Sacraments  as  His  instruments, 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  given  who  works  faith  in  those  who  hear  the 
gospel  when  and  where  it  pleases  Him."  The  Heidelberg  Cate- 
chism, in  answer  to  the  question  whence  comes  this  (saving 
faith),  says  :  "The  Holy  Spirit  works  it  in  our  hearts  through  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  and  confirms  it  through  the  use  of  the 
Sacraments." 

§  3.    The  Points  of  Difference  between  them  and  the  Romanists. 

They  both  differed  from  the  Romish  church  in  regard  to  the 
administrator  of  the  means  of  grace.  The  Protestants  made  it 
the  Church  as  a  universal  priesthood,  with  its  special  ministry 
arising  out  of  the  universal  priesthood  and  never  independent 
of  it  or  separate  from  it:  the  Romanists  made  it  a  priesthood 
which  holds  by  apostolic  succession  the  sole  right  to  dispense 
the  Word  and  Sacraments.  Hence  the  Romanists  claimed  the 
authority  to  increase  or  diminish  the  number  of  the  means  of 
grace,  and  to  dictate  how  much  of  each  means  shall  be  used. 
They  diminished  them  by  forbidding  the  free  and  general  read- 
ing of  the  Bible,  by  withholding  the  cup  from  the  laity  in  the 
Lord's  Supper.  They  increased  them  in  number  by  adding  new 
ceremonies,  such  as  those  of  the  mass  in  the  celebration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  by  increasing  the  number  of  the  Sacraments 
from  two  to  seven.  They  modified  the  idea  of  them  by  turning 
the  Lord's  Supper  into  a  sacrifice  in  which  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ — into  v/hich  the  bread  and  wine  are  changed — are 
offered  up  to  God  for  the  forgiveness  of  sin.  The  Protestants, 
on  the  other  hand,  rejected  the  idea  that  anything  but  divine  truth, 
in  some  form,  can  be  a  means  of  grace,  and  maintained  that 
nothincf  can  be  used  as  a  means  of  erace  that  is  not  revealed  in 


39-  THE    HOLY    SPIRIT    AND    THE    MEANS    OF    GRACE. 

the  Bible  or  which  is  not  in  accordance  with  it,  that  is  not  of 
divine  appointment,  or  which  is  not  agreeable  to  it. 

They  both  differed  from  the  Romanists  in  tJie  degree  of  com- 
parative importance  of  these  means,  and  in  the  order  of  priority  in 
their  use.  The  Romanists  attached  most  importance  to  the 
Sacraments;  they  placed  the  Sacraments  first;  the  Word  second 
in  point  of  order.  The  Protestants  made  the  Word  most  promi- 
nent ;  they  placed  the  Word  in  the  first ;  the  Sacraments,  in  the 
second  place  in  point  of  rank.  Hence  they  were  called  Gospel- 
ers ;  and  they  loved  to  call  themselves  evangelical.  The  Lu- 
theran Church  especially  assumed,  and  still  holds  the  name,  "The 
Evangelical  Church."  This  is  manifest  even  in  church  archi- 
tecture. The  Romanist  gives  the  altar  the  most  prominent  place 
in  the  church  edifice  ;  the  Protestant,  the  pulpit. 

They  both  differed  from  the  Romanists  in  regard  to  the  sources 
of  the  means  of  grace.  The  Romanists  made  oral  tradition  the 
great  source ;  the  Protestants,  the  written  Word.  So  also  they 
both  differed  from  the  Romanists  respecting  the  modus  operandi 
of  the  means  of  grace.  The  Romanists  taught  what  is  called 
opus  operatum — that  is,  that  the  means  of  grace  effect  salva- 
tion opere  operato  by  their  mere  administration  through  the 
hands  of  a  priest  rightly  ordained,  and  with  intention  to  do  what 
the  Church  wishes,  no}i  ponere  obicem — that  is,  without  any 
subjective  faith — if  only  the  subject  do  not  place  a  bar — that  is, 
be  not  guilty  of  any  one  of  the  seven  mortal  sins  ;  all  venial 
sins  being  removed  by  the  absolution.  The  Protestants,  on  the 
contrary,  declared  that  the  means  of  grace  were  not  efficacious 
without  feith  in  the  subject.  And  though  Luther  and  his  ad- 
herents taught  baptismal  regeneration,  they  were  not  exceptions, 
for  they  insisted  that  the  children — regenerated  in  baptism — had 
faith. 

So  they  were  agreed  /;/  opposing  the  Anabaptists  and  other 
fajtatics,  who  rejected  all  coiinection  between  saving  grace  and  the 
means  of  grace — the  Word  and  Sacraments.  The  Protestants 
all  agreed  that  divine  grace  ordinarily  operates  through  the 
Word  as  its  means  or  instrument,  and  that  men  have  no  right  to 
say  that  they  have  the  Spirit  of  God,  if  they  neglect  or  reject 
His  revealed  and  written  Word. 


POINTS    OF    DIFFERENCE   AMONG    THE    PROTESTANTS.  393 

§  4.   TJic  Points  of  Difference  among  Protestants  Themselves. 

But  the  Lutherans  and  Reformed  differed  among  themselves  in 
some  points.  The  Lutherans  distinctly  inclicde  the  Sacraments 
with  the  Word  in  the  means  of  giace,  in  the  means  by  which 
the  Holy  Spirit  works  faith  in  us.  Hence  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession says  "  that  the  Holy  Spirit  works  it  in  us,  through  the 
Word  ajid  Sacraments."  The  Reformed,  on  the  other  hand,  re- 
garded the  Word  directly,  and  the  Sacraments  only  indirectly,  as 
means  of  grace  ;  they  regarded  the  Word  as  means,  and  the 
Sacraments  as  seals  of  faith.  Hence  the  Heidelberg  Catechism 
says :  "  God  works  it  (saving  faith)  in  our  hearts  through  the 
preaching  of  His  Word,  and  confirms  it  through  the  use  of  the 
Sacraments."  The  Lutherans,  while  they  distinguished  between 
grace  and  the  means  of  grace,  still  regarded  the  two  as  insepa- 
rable. They  taught  that  the  Spirit  does  not  operate  without  the 
means,  and  that  the  saving  influences  of  the  Spirit  always  ac- 
company the  use  of  the  means ;  that  He  is  never  absent  from 
His  Word.  The  Reformed,  on  the  contrary,  not  only  distin- 
guished between  grace  and  the  means  of  grace,  but  they  taught 
that  they  were  separable,  in  the  sense  that  the  means  are  often 
without  the  accompanying  of  any  saving  influences  of  the  Spirit; 
and  that  He  may  sometimes  operate  without  any  of  the  ordi- 
nary means  to  the  saving  of  souls.  The  Lutherans,  upon  the 
whole,  attached  greater  importance  and  ascribed  greater  efficacy 
to  the  means  of  grace,  especially  to  the  Sacraments,  than  the 
Reformed  would  accord  to  them.  The  Lutherans  taught  that 
we  are  sure  of  finding  God  as  the  God  of  grace,  only  where  He 
has  told  us  He  may  be  found — that  is,  through  the  means  which 
He  has  instituted — and  that,  as  He  has  given  His  Word  and 
Sacraments  as  these  means,  we  ought  to  use  them  in  the  belief 
that  without  that  use  we  cannot  find  Him,  and  with  full  confi- 
dence that  He  is  never  absent  from  them ;  in  short,  that  He  has 
given  us  a  revelation  of  His  saving  grace  only  in  the  person  and 
work  of  Christ,  and  that  the  only  assurance  of  our  having  a 
saving  connection  with  the  Incarnate  Word,  is  in  the  use  of  the 
word  of  that  Incarnate  Word.  While  they,  therefore,  on  the  one 
hand,  rejected  the  Romish  doctrine  of  the  opus  opcratum,  and  in- 
culcated the  necessity  of  faith  in  the  subject,  if  these  means  were 
to  be  regarded  efficacious  for  salvation,  they  equally  opposed 
the  idea  of  the  fanatical  parties,  that  our  faith  could  make  any- 


394  THE    HOLY   SPIRIT    AND    THE    MEANS    OF    GRACE. 

thing  efficacious  which  was  not  a  means  of  God's  special  ap- 
pointment; and  they  distinguished  between  the  vaHdity  of  the 
means  of  grace  and  their  efficacy,  declaring  that  not  their  valid- 
ity but  only  their  saving  efficacy  depends  upon  the  faith  of  the 
subject;  that  our  faith  did  not  make  the  means  a  valid  means,  did 
not  make  Word  or  Sacrament  valid  for  salvation;  that  it  only 
made  it  efficacious  in  our  case.  They  wished,  thus,  to  make  the 
means  of  grace  valid  in  themselves  or  because  of  the  divine  insti- 
tution and  appointment,  and  not  dependent  upon  the  intention  of 
the  priest  on  the  one  hand,  nor  upon  the  faith  or  the  subjec- 
tive state — the  thoughts  or  feelings  of  men — on  the  other.  They 
did,  thus,  act  in  the  very  spirit  of  tJie  priiiciple  of  tlie  Reformation, 
which,  making  justification  capable  of  being  realized  only  by 
faith,  involves  the  necessity  of  the  object  of  faith  being  first  pre- 
sented. Faith  cannot  produce  justification,  it  can  only  accept  it, 
when  it  is  offered ;  it  cannot  exist  unless  the  object  to  be  appre- 
hended by  it,  be  first  presented  and  offered  independently  of  its 
existence.  Grace  is  offered  not  because  we  believe,  but  that  we 
may  believe.  In  thus  maintaining  this  nnion  of  faith  and  the 
Word,  they  have  preserved  to  the  Church,  a  precious  truth  of  the 
plan  of  salvation.  They  were,  perhaps,  led,  thus,  to  attach  an 
undue  importance  to  the  Sacraments  ;  and  to  aim  at  making  too 
rigid  a  definition  of  the  means  of  grace,  when  they  entirely  ex- 
cluded prayer  as  a  means  of  grace,  and  only  regarded  it  as  a 
necessary  accompaniment  of  the  proper  use  of  the  Word  and 
Sacraments.  When  we  remember  how  much  importance  and 
force  is  ascribed  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  to  prayer,  and  how 
much  it  is  insisted  upon  as  the  very  means  by  which  we  receive 
blessings  from  the  God  of  grace ;  that  it  is  a  word  of  God — a 
form  of  divine  truth  as  it  exists  under  the  influence  of  the 
scheme  of  redemption  :  a  form  of  truth  as  well  as  the  Word 
and  Sacraments — it  would  seem  that  the  Lutheran  idea  attempts 
to  limit  too  much  or,  at  least,  to  define  too  precisely,  the  means 
of  grace.  But  the  Lutheran  view — as  it  prevailed  in  the  early 
days  of  the  Reformation,  when  it  still  distinguished  clearly  be- 
tween the  means  of  grace  and  grace  itself,  and  taught,  as  we  have 
seen  from  the  Augsburg  Confession,  the  superadded,  immediate 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  accompanying  the  means  of 
grace — is  certainly  one  of  the  most  true  and  precious  things  in 
the  theology  of  the    Reformation.     It   is   a   connection   of  the 


IMMEDIATE    INFLUENCES    NOT    IRRESISTIBLE.  395 

Word  and  Spirit  of  God,  which  cannot  be  too  carefully  guarded, 
or  too  highly  cherished. 

But  at  a  later  day,  in  opposition  to  fanatical  parties,  on  the 
one  hand,  who,  entirely  separated  the  operations  of  the  Spirit 
from  the  Word ;  and,  on  the  other,  to  the  Calvinists,  who  taught 
that  the  saving  operations  of  God  in  connection  with  means  of 
grace,  were  not  only  immediate  but  irresistible — the  divines  of 
our  Church  were  led  to  deny  all  superadded  influences  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  to  regard  the  power  and  operation  of  the  Word 
and  of  the  Spirit,  as  identical.  Both  parties,  Lutherans  as  well 
as  Calvinists,  seemed  to  be  agreed  in  the  idea  that  all  immediate 
divine  influences  must  be  irresistible,  and  the  former  denying 
that  grace  is  irresistible,  made  it  entirely  mediate,  while  the  latter 
regarded  it  as  both  immediate  and  irresistible. 

§  5 .   TJie  Erroiicoiisness  of  the  Idea  that  the  Immediate  Influences 
of  God  must  be  Irresistible. 

This  idea  reduces  the  divine  power  to  a  mere  physical  force 
— an  omnipotence  in  the  negative  sense  of  being  uncontrolled 
by  any  other  force,  but  not  an  omnipotence  in  the  positive  sense 
of  being  self-controlled.  It  robs  the  absolute  of  his  personality 
and  exalts  his  natural  above  his  moral  attributes,  places  the 
physical  higher  than  the  ethical  in  the  idea  of  God.  It  makes 
His  power  like  a  blind  nature-force,  which  must  go  out  into  all 
the  effects  for  which  it  is  cause,  must  effect  whatever  it  can 
effect.  Its  logical  result,  if  fully  carried  out,  would  be  either  the 
separation  between  God  and  the  world,  even  the  world  of  spirits, 
which  deism  inculcates,  and  in  which  He  exerts  no  influence  at 
all  upon  it — thus  it  would  be  another  God;  or  if  not  this  sepa- 
ration, it  would  be  Spinoza's  idea  of  the  world  of  creatures  as 
only  divine  attributes  and  operations :  and,  thus,  we  would  have 
an  acosmism.  Or  it  would  result  in  the  naturalistic  pantheism 
which  absorbs  all  divine  power  into  the  world  :  and,  thus,  we 
would  have  pancosmism.  It  is,  thus,  utterly  inconsistent  with 
the  Christian  idea  of  God  as  revealed  in  the  Bible  ;  and,  espe- 
cially with  that  idea,  as  it  is  required  to  be  apprehended  in  the 
light  of  the  principle  of  the  Reformation — with  the  realistic 
view  of  the  communion  with  God  which  it  enforces.  The  Chris- 
tian idea  determines  personality  to  the  absolute,  makes  Him 
self-controlline  and  self- limiting  in  the  creation  and  TOvernment 


396  THE    HOLY   SPIRIT    AND    THE    MEANS    OF    GRACE. 

of  His  creatures,  makes  the  spring  of  His  absolute  power  to  be 
moral  excellence ;  the  soul  of  His  activity,  holy  love ;  which, 
while  it  operates  upon  its  creatures,  does  not  destroy  but  pre- 
serves them  ;  which  acts  upon  moral  beings  consistently  with 
their  free  will,  and  for  the  establishment  of  them  in  their  distinct 
and  peculiar  personal  being ;  which  accommodates  itself  to  the 
receptivity  of  the  human  spirit ;  and  whose  glory,  as  Luther 
says,  is  in  condescending  love.  In  the  language  of  Martensen, 
"  God  limits  His  own  power  by  calling  into  existence  out  of  the 
depths  of  His  own  eternal  life,  a  world  of  created  beings  to 
whom  He  gives,  in  a  derivative  way,  to  have  life  in  themselves. 
But  precisely  in  this  way  above  all  others — that  He  is  omnipotent 
over  a  free  world — does  He  reveal  the  inner  greatness  of  His 
power  most  clearly."  "  That  is  true  power  which  brings  free 
agents  into  existence,  and  is  notwithstanding  able  to  make  itself 
all  in  all." 

The  idea  of  the  resistibility  of  the  divine  will  is  involved  nec- 
essarily in  the  experience  of  the  guilt  of  sin.  It  is,  therefore,  nec- 
essarily inseparable  from  the  principle  of  the  Reformation  which 
makes  the  sense  of  the  guilt  of  sin  an  essential  element  of  saving 
faith.  No  man  can  be  in  a  state  of  mind  to  accept  Christianity 
who  does  not  realize  the  guilt  of  sin.  The  true  idea  of  the  per- 
sonal nature  of  God,  and  of  the  personality,  freedom,  responsi- 
bility of  man,  involves  the  guilt  of  sin.  Any  theory,  therefore, 
which  obscures  the  guilt  of  sin  must  be  erroneoiis  or  dfective. 
The  pantheistic  theories  explain  sin  as  inherent  in  the  nature 
of  things,  as  a  mere  natural  defect  necessarily  involved  in  the 
very  existence  of  the  finite,  in  the  necessary  evolution  of  the 
world  of  nature  and  the  history  of  the  human  world — the  evolu- 
tion of  the  universe  and  the  development  of  human  life.  Sin, 
like  its  opposite — holiness — is  only  a  necessary  occasion  of  the 
life-movement  in  the  progress  of  man.  And,  hence,  they  con- 
sistently deny  all  guilt  in  sin.  The  doctrine  of  absolute,  uncon- 
ditional predestination  and  of  the  irresistibility  of  divine  influ- 
ence, though  its  Christian  professors  are  secured — by  the  explicit 
teachings  of  the  Scriptures  respecting  the  guilt  of  sin,  by  the 
dictates  of  an  enlightened  conscience,  and  by  personal  experi- 
ence in  religion — against  this  tendency,  nevertheless  does,  at 
least,  in  the  speculative  apprehension,  obscure  the  guilt  of  sin. 
Making  sin  an  object  of  divine  determination,  it  makes  it  neces- 


HUMAN    GUILT   AND    DIVINE    INFLUENCE.  397 

sary.  For,  though  it  conceives  of  it  as  necessary,  only  as  the 
condition  of  redemption,  it  still,  llius,  makes  it,  in  some  sense, 
necessary  to  the  highest  good  ;  not  merely  a  foreseen  incident 
in  but  a  necessary  part  of  God's  plan  of  the  world  ;  not  a  mere 
possibility  involved  in  the  very  existence  of  freedom  in  the  creat- 
ure— a  possibility  which  should  never  have  become  an  actuality, 
which  ought  to  have  remained,  and  could  have  remained  a  mere 
possibility  forever,  even  in  the  midst  of  the  world  of  free  creat- 
ures— but  a  reality  unavoidable  in  the  history  of  the  kingdom  of 
spiritual  beings.  Thus  sin  loses  its  moral  nature ;  redemp- 
tion from  it  loses  its  ethical  character,  and  becomes  a  mere 
natural  process  ;  and,  consequently,  the  consciousness,  or,  at 
least,  the  speculative  idea,  of  the  guilt  of  sin  is  obscured. 

But  the  Christian  idea  as  apprehended  through  the  principle 
of  the  Reformation  is  inseparable  from  the  experience  of  sin  as 
sin.  And  the  experience  of  the  guilt  of  sin  shuts  out  the  idea  of 
its  being  a  necessity,  and  requires  it  to  be  regarded  as  a  free  act 
of  the  creature.  It  involves,  therefore,  such  independence — 
derived,  indeed,  from  God — but  still  such  independence,  such 
relative  independence  of  human  freedom  as  utterly  forbids  the 
idea  of  the  irresistibility  of  divine  influence.  If  all  things  are 
the  result  of  an  unconditional  decree,  there  is  no  real  history  of 
man,  no  reciprocal  relation  of  a  divine  will  and  a  real  human 
will ;  and  human  history  becomes  only  the  evolution  of  that 
decree.  The  life  of  man  and  of  all  the  moral  world,  moves 
onward  in  a  manner  similar  to  the  development  of  the  life  of 
brutes,  and  to  the  ongoing  of  the  world  of  nature,  differing  not 
in  kind  but  only  in  degree.  If  man  is  not  able  to  resist  the 
divine  influence,  history  cannot  be  a  living  movement,  in  which 
there  is  the  reciprocal  action  of  the  uncreated  and  the  created 
will — of  the  Creator  and  the  creature — and  human  life  becomes 
a  movement  of  like  nature  with  that  of  a  mere  physical  force. 
Such  an  idea  either  entirely  separates  the  parties,  or  it  destroys 
all  distinction  between  them.  Such  a  view,  consequently,  shuts 
out  all  possibility  of  a  real  communion  between  God  and  man ; 
and,  thus,  comes  into  direct  conflict  with  the  consciousness  of 
that  communion  which  is  so  much  insisted  on  by  the  principle 
of  the  Reformation. 

The  Christian  idea  of  God  requires  us  to  speak  on  this  wise: 
As  it  became  God  to  create  the  world,  so  it  became  Him  to 


398  THE    HOLY    SPIRIT    AND    THE    MEANS    OF    GRACE. 

accept  the  consequences  which  necessarily  must  result  from 
such  a  creation.  He  is  in  no  necessary  relations,  but  if  He  puts 
Himself  in  relations,  He  will  act  in  accordance  with  the  relations 
in  which  He  places  Himself  He  is  under  no  necessity  of  cre- 
ating a  world  of  free  beings,  but  when  He  has  called  such  beings 
into  existence,  He  will  preserve  their  freedom.  As  it  is  His  will 
to  originate  a  kingdom  of  spirits,  of  free  beings  in  creation,  so  it 
is  His  will  to  share  in  the  vital  development  of  these  moral 
agents,  to  accommodate  His  influences  in  perfect  condescension 
to  their  freedom  as  well  as  their  wants;  to  operate  upon  them  in 
the  most  powerful  manner,  because  it  is  by  moral  operation ;  to 
attain  the  most  wonderful  results,  because  they  are  moral  results  ; 
and  yet  influence  them  so  lovingly,  so  gently,  so  wooingly,  that 
He  will  govern  them  freely,  will  gain  their  obedience,  though 
they  could  resist.  It  must  be  His  will  to  adapt  His  operations, 
to  subject  His  power  to  all  the  conditions  involved  in  the  idea 
of  the  creation,  which,  m  His  infinite  wisdom  and  goodness.  He 
saw  to  be  worthy  of  His  creative  hand,  and  of  His  divine  ac- 
ceptance. To  say  that  He  could  not  thus  limit  Himself  in  His 
operations,  is  to  revive  the  old  heatJicn  idea  of  the  indeterminate 
infinity  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  utterly  inconsistent  with  the 
divine  spirituality.  Creative  love  is  capable  of  self-limitation  ; 
and,  while  in  the  changes,  growth  and  destination  of  the  crea- 
ture, it  will  be  so  close  and  tenacious  that  nothing  but  the  free 
will  can  tear  its  object  away  from  its  embraces,  yet  it  will  adapt 
itself  in  the  exercise  of  power  to  the  rational  creature's  personal 
freedom  and  spiritual  nature,  as  well  as  to  its  capacities  and 
wants.  The  fact  of  a  living  communion  of  God  with  His  moral 
creatures  is  as  necessary  to  the  idea  of  His  moral  perfection  as  the 
reality  of  His  foreknowledge  of  the  result  of  their  life  is  to  the 
idea  of  His  natural  perfection.  The  love  which  is  concerned  in 
the  realization  of  His  idea,  in  the  execution  of  His  purposes,  and 
in  the  fulfillment  of  His  promises,  belongs  as  essentially  to  in- 
finite spiritual  excellence  as  the  omniscience,  which  conceives 
the  plan  and  foreknows  the  end,  does  to  infinite  physical  per- 
fection.. 

The  true  Christian  idea  requires  us  to  suppose  that  the  king- 
dom of  personal  spirits  is  in  more  immediate  communion  with 
God  than  the  world  of  nature.  But  this  notion  of  the  irresisti- 
bility of  God's  operation  implies  that  nature,  which  has  no  free 


PERSONAL  SUBJECTS  AND  PERSONAL  INFLUENCE.      399 

will,  is,  as  the  result  of  creation,  in  more  immediate  communion 
with  Him  than  the  rational  creature,  inasmuch  as  it  has  no  relative 
independence  which  must  first  be  overpowered.  The  Christian 
idea,  on  the  other  hand,  apprehends  the  kingdom  of  free  spirits 
as  the  special  object  of  God's  personal  love  and  sympathy,  and 
the  kingdom  of  impersonal  nature  as  not  only  distinct  from,  but 
inferior  to  it,  and  as  only  a  preparation  for  its  existence  and  man- 
ifestation. And  if  God  continue  His  activity  even  in  the  world 
of  nature,  and  if  He  make  His  operation  upon  it  and  in  it  con- 
sistent with  the  preservation  of  the  forces  with  which  He  has 
endued,  and  with  the  regular  laws  with  which  He  originally  im- 
pressed it — except  in  the  case  of  miracles,  if  even  this  be  an 
exception — He  will  certainly  continue  to  operate  upon  the  king- 
dom of  spirits,  and  adapt  His  influence  upon  them,  and  His 
work  in  them,  to  the  existence  and  preservation  of  the  personal 
moral  nature,  the  comparative  self-dependence  and  freedom,  with 
which  He  created  them — excepting  the  cases  of  miraculous 
power  for  the  introduction  of  some  new  origination,  if  these  be, 
indeed,  exceptions.  In  the  communion  of  God  with  men.  His 
operation  does  not  destroy  or  suspend  the  activity  of  the  soul 
any  more  than  the  human  activity  will  suspend  or  destroy  the 
divine  operation.  In  the  "  Old  Wisdom,"  the  revived  heathen 
philosophy  of  the  relation  of  the  indeterminate  infinite  to  the 
defined  finite,  this  is  the  conception.  But  the  "New  Wisdom," 
the  Christian  idea,  appropriated  anew  by  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation,  makes  the  divine  and  the  human  operations  per- 
fectly consistent  with  each  other,  and  keeps  them  in  union. 
Human  souls  are  created  to  be  the  vessels  of  the  activity,  not 
of  an  irresistible  nature-force,  but  of  the  Holy  Ghost :  to  be  the 
personal  subjects  of  a  personal  influence.  God's  decree  in  re- 
gard to  men  is  not  unconditional.  It  is  not  eternally  deter- 
mined, irrespective  of  the  history  of  His  free  creatures  in  time; 
but  is  conditioned  by  the  freedom,  which  is  His  own  gift.  It  is 
not  merely  logical,  but  also  ethical;  not  merely  in  accordance 
with  the  necessities  of  eternal  reason,  but  also  with  the  possibil- 
ities involved  in  the  freedom  of  finite  beijigs.  It  is  for  the  mani- 
festation of  a  world  of  freedom ;  for  the  perfection  of  creatures 
who,  in  a  derived  sense,  have  life  in  themselves,  possess  a  self- 
movement,  zvhich  He  has  allowed  in  the  constitution  of  their 
being,  and  of  which  He  Himself  lias  made  them  conscious.     His 


400  THE    HOLY   SPIRIT    AND    THE    MEANS    OF    GRACE. 

Operations  upon  snch  creatures  are  not  irresistible.  He  makes 
them  dependent  for  their  definite  icsults  upon  the  self-determin- 
ation of  the  finite  will.  Thus  is  lie,  not  the  All,  but  in  all. 
He  limits  His  will  in  its  natural,  unconditional  power,  when  He 
creates  and  converts  men,  in  such  a  way,  as  to  manifest  it  as  the 
holy  power  of  love — the  power  of  that  God  who  is  love,  and 
proclaims  Himself  to  man  as  the  God  of  love.  And  His  glory 
will  consist  in  His  being  able,  notwithstanding,  to  be  over  all,  and 
to  have  His  will  done  by  free  beings  in  heaven  and  on  earth. 

§  6.  TJie  Erroneousness  of  the  Doctrine,  which  denies  the  Immedi- 
ate Influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  makes  the  Pozver  of  the 
Means  of  Grace  Identical  tvith  that  of  Grace  Itself. 

The  Lutheran  divines  should  not  have  permitted  themselves 
to  be  driven  to  this  position  by  the  idea  that  all  immediate  di- 
vine influence  is  irresistible.  In  rejecting  the  doctrine  of  uncon- 
ditional predestination,  they  should  also  have  freed  themselves 
from  the  notion  of  the  irresistibility  of  the  divine  operations 
upon  man — from  the  idea  that  the  divine  influence  upon  the 
human  will,  is,  in  any  form,  irresistible ;  and  should  thus  have 
liberated  themselves  from  the  idea  that  the  admission  of  the 
immediateness  of  the  influences  of  the  Spirit,  must  be  denied, 
if  the  idea  of  their  irresistibility  is  to  be  avoided. 

Their  position  is  inconsistent  tvith  the  principle  of  the  Refor- 
mation, and  with  that  clear  apprehension  of  the  Christian  idea 
which  should  have  been  the  result  of  the  adoption  of  this  prin- 
ciple. It  tends  to  bring  back  the  "  Old  Wisdom"  which  Luther 
so  much  deprecated,  namely,  the  idea  of  God  as  separate  from 
the  world  and  man ;  and,  thus,  to  make  personal  communion 
with  Him,  if  not  practically,  yet  in  idea,  impossible.  This  sub- 
stitution of  the  means  of  grace  in  the  place  of  God — of  the 
immediate  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  a  return  to  the  optis 
operatum  of  Romanism.  It  makes  grace  operate  like  an  im- 
personal power,  a  physical  force,  a  magical  agency,  and  differs 
from  the  Romish  idea  only  in  that  it  does  not  make  the  priest  a 
part  of  this  force,  or  a  condition  of  its  efficacious  operation.  It 
is  a  tendency  to  sever  the  relations  of  personal  communion  be- 
tiveen  God  and  the  subject  of  salvation.  It  is  a  return  to  that 
deistic  idea  of  God  and  the  world  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
necessarily  excluded  from  theology  by  the  true  idea.     It  repre- 


THE    INFLUENCE    ADDITIONAL   AND    IMMEDIATE.  4OI 

sents  the  Holy  Spirit  as  having  abdicated  his  operations  in  favor 
of  the  means  of  grace,  as  Romanism  represents  God  to  have 
abdicated  the  powers  of  salvation  in  favor  of  the  Church.  The 
reality  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  influence  is  inseparable  from  its  im- 
mediateness.  He  does  not  operate  as  a  blind  force  of  nature, 
but  as  a  personal,  self-conscious  voluntary  agent  in  the  human 
soul ;  and  He  produces  in  it  movements  and  changes,  which  are 
the  result  of  His  design,  which  correspond  to  His  purpose  ;  and. 
consequently,  He  cannot  have  made  His  operations  identical 
with  the  impersonal  means  of  grace,  nor  have  transferred  them 
to  the  logico-moral  operation  of  the  Word  and  Sacraments. 
Though  in  connection  with  the  Word  and  its  contents — He  still 
operates  immediately  upon  the  soul ;  He  is  personally,  and,  con- 
sequently, immediately  present.  The  Word  being  originally  in- 
spired by  Him,  does  indeed,  bring  Him  with  it,  and  thus.  He  oper- 
ates mediately,  but  He  operates,  in  addition  to  this,  immediately. 
"  I  (Paul)  have  planted  and  Apollos  watered  but  God  gave  the 
increase."  The  Scriptures  declare  that  He  is  given  to  us,  and 
that  we  have  assurance  of  communion  with  God  because  "  He 
has  given  us  His  Spirit;"  that  "we  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory 
of  God,"  because  of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  "which  is 
given  unto  us,"  that  "the  Spirit  Himself  beareth  witness  with  our 
spirits  that  we  are  the  children  of  God,"  that  "  no  man  calleth 
Jesus,  Lord,  save  by  the  Spirit  of  God."  And  Luther  declares 
that  "the  Holy  Spirit  alone  is  the  interpreter  of  the  Word,"  that 
"  if  he  do  not  interpret  it,  it  remains  uninterpreted,"  that  "  no 
man  understands  the  truths  of  the  Word  except  by  the  Spirit," 
that  "  he  must  speak  it  in  the  heart,"  "  he  alone  can  bring  it  into 
the  heart." 

We  are  spiritually  diseased,  and  we  need  healing  help,  but  it 
is  only  the  personal  that  can  heal  the  personal.  The  Word  is 
not  personal ;  it  is  not  a  personal  agent ;  it  cannot  come  to  us  ; 
but  we  must  go  to  it;  we  must  apply  it  to  our  wants.  But  we 
could  never,  in  this  way,  have  assurance  of  salvation,  as  the 
principle  of  the  Reformation  requires.  We  would  not  have  the 
witness  of  the  Spirit.  In  the  language  of  Julius  Mueller,  from 
whom  we  have  derived  some  of  these  thoughts :  "  T/ie  mediate- 
ness  of  his  {the  Spi^'ifs)  i/iflitcnce  is  only  half  the  expression  of 
this  relation  ;  it  is  eoinpleted  by  the  immediateness.  The  tzvo  must 
be  maintained  tosrether.     The  divine  Word  is  not  a  fixed  medium 


402  THE    HOLY   SPIRIT    AND    THE    MEANS    OF    GRACE. 

for  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  separates  him  from  our  spirit ;  it  is 
his  organ,  in  and  zvitJi  which  he  is  liiuisclf  present  with  us.  As 
justifying  faith  places  us  in  immediate  comm2inion  zvith  Christ ; 
so  in  conversion  and  sanctification  we  cannot  dispense  with  the 
immediate  cojuuiiinion  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  will  be  found  im- 
possible truly  to  preserve,  in  the  doctrine  of  justification,  that 
which  is  the  life-nerve  of  it,  namely,  the  immediatcness  of  the 
appreJiension  of  Christ ;  if,  in  the  doctrine  of  conversion,  the 
immediateness  of  the  relation  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  personal 
operation  of  the  latter  in  our  own  spirit,  be  not  secured  in  and 
with  the  Word  through  the  content  and  form  of  its  representa- 
tions." "  The  interest  of  the  Lutheran  theology  in  taking  this 
position  (that  of  identifying  the  power  of  the  Word  and  the 
Spirit)  was  to  preserve  the  belief:  That  the  principal  opera- 
tion of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  intimately  and  inseparably  connected 
with  the  mediating  operation  of  the  Word.  But  for  this  we 
think  it  is  now  seen  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  confound  or  iden- 
tify the  operations  of  the  Word  and  the  Spirit ;  and  much  less 
to  make  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  immanent  in  the  Word,  or  to 
limit  the  operations  of  the  Divine  Word,  as  means  of  grace,  simply 
and  exclusively  to  the  ecclesiastical  and  official  exhibition  of  it,  as 
some  of  the  Old  Lutherans  of  our  day  are  doing." 

§  7.   TJie  Evils  re  sidling  from  the  Idea  that  all  Immediate  Diviiie 
Operations  Must  Be  Irresistible. 

It  is  manifest  that  the  idea  of  God,  to  which  the  principle  of 
the  Reformation  so  strongly  urges,  had  not  been  fully  appropri- 
ated, when  men,  on  the  one  hand,  regarded  God's  decree  uncon- 
ditional, and  His  influence  irresistible  ;  and  when,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  thought  that  to  avoid  the  idea  of  the  irresistibility  of 
the  operations  of  divine  grace,  they  must  de^ny  their  immediate- 
ness. Luther  had  in  some  measure  apprehended  it.  He  had 
declared  the  necessity  of  rejecting  the  old  idea  of  God  as  the 
undetermined  Infinite,  and  of  conceiving  of  Him  as  the  living, 
personal  God,  whose  glory  is  His  love,  whose  greatness  is  mani- 
fested in  the  power  of  His  condescending  love.  It  was  this  that 
led  him,  if  not  to  renounce,  yet  to  subordinate  the  speculative 
idea  of  unconditional  election,  to  the  actual  revelation  of  God's 
decree,  made  in  the  cross  of  Christ.  He  so  deeply  felt  this, 
that   he  said  we  needed  a  new  language,  a  new  expression  for 


\ 

EVILS  OF  DEPARTURE  FROM  THE  TRUE  IDEA.      4O3 

this  new  wisdom,  which  had  come  fully  into  the  possession  of 
the  faith  of  the  Church,  only  through  the  principle  of  the  Ref- 
ormation. Hence  he  directs  us  to  the  atoning  death  of  the 
blessed  Saviour,  if  we  would  know  the  divine  decree;  for  in  that 
God  had  revealed  His  heart  io  men,  and  z«  regard  to  men. 

The  true  idea  of  God  shuts  out,  on  the  one  hand,  the  Pela- 
gianism  which  makes  man  so  independent  of  God  that  he  can 
of  himself  originate  holiness  ;  and,  on  the  other,  that  Augustin- 
ianism  which  makes  man  dependent  in  such  a  way  that  he  is  not 
a  moral  agent,  that  he  is  not  receptive  of  holiness,  but  must 
first  be  overpowered  by  an  irresistible  influence.  But  that  idea 
of  dependence  and  freedom,  and  of  the  point  of  union  between 
dependence  and  freedom,  involved  in  the  coming  together  of  the 
eternal  and  the  created  will  in  the  attaining  of  human  destiny, 
of  the  union  of  the  productivity  of  God  and  the  receptivity  of 
man,  which  is  experienced  in  justification  by  simple  faith  in 
Christ  alone, — was  not  then  fully  developed ;  and  it  could  not, 
perhaps,  be  scientifically  apprehended,  until  "the  new  wisdom" 
had  found  its  expression  in  the  clearer  views  of  the  personality 
of  God  and  man,  which  tvcre  involved,  indeed,  in  the  Reforma- 
tion, but  zvliicJi  it  has  taken  centuries  of  experience,  in  both  truth 
and  error,  to  develop. 

Instead  of  being  controlled  by  this  idea,  theology  returned, 
consequently,  to  the  old  Scholastic  system.  The  old  idea  of 
God  and  man  was  revived.  Instead  of  keeping  the  understand- 
ing in  close  connection  with  experience,  with  consciousness, 
with  the  facts  of  life,  with  religion  'as  the  living  reality,  which 
the  principle  of  the  Reformation  shows  it  to  be ;  and,  conse- 
quently, with  the  idea  of  the  personal,  living  God,  implied  in  the 
guilt  of  human  sin,  and  of  the  freedom  of  divine  grace,  implied 
in  the  idea  of  gratuitous  justification  as  involving  freedom,  in 
the  strictest  sense,  on  the  part  of  God ;  with  the  fact  of  the 
blame-worthiness  and  condemnation  of  sin,  as  revealing  the  free- 
dom of  the  human  will, — instead  of  being  controlled  by  this 
conscious  experience,  from  which  the  Reformation  had  sprung, 
and  which  it  always  requires, — theology,  soon  after  Luther's 
death,  returned  to  the  mediaeval  Scholastic  conception  of  God. 
This  idea,  in  minds  of  Pelagian  tendency,  made  the  human 
activity  suspend  the  divine  activity;  and  in  those  of  Augustin- 
ian  proclivities,  the  divine   activity  suspend  the   human  activity 


404  THE    HOLY    SPIRIT    AND   THE    MEANS    OF    GRACE. 

in  the  regeneration  of  the  soul.  This  view  was  entirely  foreign 
to  the  Christian  idea,  to  the  new  life,  to  the  religious  experience 
and  strong  realistic  views  of  Luther.  Instead  of  conceiving, 
with  Luther,  that,  "The  true,  the  right  God,  is  the  God  of  life 
and  consolation,  of  righteousness  and  goodness,"  the  God  who 
has  revealed  Himself  in  a  determinate  form  in  Christ,  and 
vouchsafed  His  presence  in  a  determinate  manner  in  His 
Church, — it  still  apprehended  Him  as  simple  essence,  or  as 
actus  piiriis,  as  absolutely  undefined  being,  as  the  being  in 
whom  there  is  no  distinction  of  knowledge  and  will,  and  in 
whose  decree,  eternal  reason  and  everlasting  love,  logical  neces- 
sity and  ethical  holy  freedom,  cannot  be  distinguished.  It 
denied  all  self-limitation  to  God,  overlooking  the  bearing  of  the 
fact  of  created  existence  as  distinct  from  Him,  made  so  by  His 
own  hand,  and,  consequently,  to  be  respected  as  such  in  His 
dealings  with  it;  and,  therefore,  failing  to  recognize  God  as 
adapting  His  activity  to  the  laws  of  His  own  work  in  nature, 
and  conditioning  His  influence  in  and  upon  the  human  spirit  by 
the  freedom  which  He  has  Himself  bestowed ;  it  excluded  all 
concrete  life  from  God's  nature,  all  determinate  existence  from 
His  being ;  and,  consequently,  it  had  to  conclude  either  that  He 
did  not  act  at  all,  or  that  He  acted  irresistibly. 

Luther  had  said:  "In  the  old  conception  of  God — in  the  '  Old 
Wisdom' — majesty,  power,  infinity,  were  regarded  the  highest  in 
God;  to  it  it  seemed  utterly  unbecoming  that  God  should  not 
only  operate  upon  man,  but  should  assume  human  nature,  should 
Himself  become  man.  In  the  'Old  Wisdom'  and  language,  a  crea- 
ture is  something  that  is  infinitely  different  from  the  highest  God- 
head; but  in  the  '  New  Wisdom'  or  language,  humanity  means 
something  more,  something  in  unspeakably  close  connection 
with  the  God-head.  We  need  a  new  language  to  express  the 
'  New  Wisdom,'  the  new  idea  of  the  likeness  of  man  to  God  " — 
that  is,  the  great  truth  that  God  is  a  personal  living  being,  a 
being  whose  acts  are  historical  in  His  relation  to  man,  suited  to 
man's  nature  as  an  historical  existence.  The  neglect  of  this  idea 
leads  either  to  Deistic  or  Pantheistic  views  of  God.  In  the 
early  days  of  the  Reformation,  the  prevalence  of  experimental 
religion  prevented  this  development.  In  that  strong  and  healthy 
state  of  piety,  theology  was  kept  close  to  life,  as  we  have  seen 
in  the  method  of  Luther  and  Melanchthon,  and  in  that  of  the 


FALSE   VIEWS    END    IN    DEISM    OR    PANTHEISM.  405 

Augsburg  Confession,  and,  consequently,  it  was  less  influenced 
by  the  old  idea  of  abstract,  undefined  infinity,  and  more  by  that 
of  the  concrete  life  of  the  personal  God.  But  when  piety  de- 
clined, and  the  question  of  the  certainty  of  truth  came  to  be 
more  and  more  a  purely  intellectual  one — when  the  question  of 
the  relations  of  God  and  man  in  regeneration  was  transferred 
from  the  heart  to  the  head,  and  as  the  true  Christian  idea  of 
God  and  man  in  their  personal  relations  as  required  by  a  com- 
plete apprehension  of  the  bearings  of  the  principle  of  the  Ref- 
ormation upon  theology  and  anthropology  had  not  yet  been  fully 
developed,  and  men  returned  generally  to  the  old  scholastic  idea 
— the  views  which  we  have  considered  so  defective  were  the 
natural  and  necessary  result. 

Great  evils  spring  from  these  defective  views.  They  lead  to 
some  of  the  most  deplorable  mental  tendencies  to  which  man  is 
liable.  If  men  believe  that  all  immediate  divine  operations  are 
irresistible  and,  at  the  same  time  believe  that  God  acts  immedi- 
ately upon  the  world  of  nature  and  upon  the  soul  of  man,  there 
will  be  fostered  a  mental  disposition  favorable  to  that  pantheism 
which  regards  the  universe  as  merely  the  existence-form  of  the 
Godhead,  which  looks  upon  God  as  the  soul  of  the  world,  from 
which  all  spirits  are  developed,  and  into  which  they  are  all,  at 
last,  to  be  absorbed.  If  they  reject  all  immediate  divine  influ- 
ences, because  they  believe  that,  if  they  occurred,  they  would  be 
irresistible,  they  will  be  led  toward  that  deism,  which  supposes 
that  God,  in  the  original  creation,  hurled  the  world  into  such  a 
distance  from  Himself  that  He  never  operates  upon  it ;  that  He 
is  so  separate  from  the  natural  world  and  the  souls  of  men,  that 
He  is  a  mere  idle  spectator  of  their  existence  and  movements. 

When  men,  in  the  former  case,  regard  all  individual  human 
beings  as  mere  dependent  and  passive  vessels  for  the  glory  of 
God,  there  is,  for  such  thinkers,  but  one  step  to  the  pantheistic 
view  of  them,  as  mere  vessels  for  the  glory  of  the  idea.  From 
the  representation  of  them  as  the  mere  passive  subjects,  in 
which  and  through  which  God  moves  with  irresistible  power, 
the  way  is  easy  to  the  pantheistic  notion,  that  they  are  only 
transition-points  in  the  evolution  of  the  idea — occasions  of  the 
movements  of  the  soul  of  the  world,  in  the  course  of  its  coming 
into  conscious  existence.  For  if  the  subjects,  through  which 
God   reveals    Himself,    be   mere   means,  and   not   also   ends  in 


406  THE    HOLY   SPIRIT   AND    THE    MEANS    OF    GRACE. 

themselves ;  if  the  divine  will  operate  only  on  material,  whose 
existence  is  not  an  object  of  personal  love  and  fellowship, — it 
loses  its  glory.  There  is  no  revelation  of  itself;  for  there  is  no 
subject  which  can  know  it  and  reciprocate  its  feelings.  Yea,  it 
ceases  to  be  recognized  as  a  personal  will,  and  comes  to  be  re- 
garded— as  the  pantheist  conceives  of  it — mere  unconscious  mind 
or  blind  force. 

The  doctrine  of  the  irresistibility  of  divine  grace,  of  all  imme- 
diate divine  operations,  gave  a  powerful  impulse  to  the  fuller 
development  of  pantheism,  which  it  has  received  since  the  pe- 
riod of  the  Reformation.  Absolute  predestinarianism,  making 
men  only  transition-points  of  the  movements  of  the  divine  will — 
the  existence  of  man,  the  atonement  by  Christ,  saving  faith, 
man  and  his  history,  as  well  as  the  existence,  forms,  and  move- 
ments of  the  natural  world,  only  the  evolution  of  God's  eternal, 
unconditional  decree, — is  closely  akin  to  the  idea  that  the  uni- 
verse and  man  are  only  the  evolution  of  God  Himself  It  was 
only  the  old  conception  which  was  carried  out  into  its  logical 
results  by  the  principle  of  the  early  ideal  pantheism,  that  all 
definition,  all  limitation,  is  simply  negation.  Practically  the  pro- 
fessors of  absolute  predestinarianism  in  the  Church  were  kept 
by  their  devotion  to  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  their  obe- 
dience to  the  dictates  of  conscience,  and  their  regard  for  the  in- 
terests of  vital  Christianity,  from  a  similar  process  of  thought. 
But  speculatively,  and  in  the  course  of  logical  necessity,  there 
was  from  the  pure,  undefined,  divine  essence  of  the  old  wisdom, 
but  one  step  to  the  world-substance  of  the  ideal  pantheism. 
For  it  also  made  so  much  of  God  that  it  was  well  said  to  be 
"God-intoxicated,"  denying,  as  it  did,  the  reality  of  the  world 
in  its  idea  of  God,  and  making  God  the  only  real  substance,  and 
the  universe  His  eternal  attributes  of  thought  and  extension. 
But  it  was  soon  changed  into  naturalistic  pantheism — into  the 
idea  that  God  fii^st  attains  actual  existence  through  the  attributes 
of  thought  and  extensioti.  And,  as  in  the  old  abstract  idea  of 
God,  as  pure  undefined  substance,  all  concrete  life  was  trans- 
ferred, by  polytheism,  from  the  Creator  to  the  creature ;  so,  in 
the  pantheistic  absolute  iota  of  Him,  all  the  realities  of  exist- 
ence are  carried,  by  the  positivists,  over  into  the  world  itself 
In  this  process  the  idea  of  God  has  now  no  living  power  or  in- 
ward reality.     It   can  no  longer  maintain  the  existence  of  its 


SCHOLASTIC   AND    HIERARCHIAL    LUTHERANISM.  407 

abstract  essence  against  the  concrete  cosmos  of  naturalism. 
Thus  is  the  process  ever  onward,  from  the  idea  of  indetermin- 
ate being,  to  ideal  pantheism  ;  and  from  that,  to  naturalistic 
pantheism. 

The  latter  view,  namely,  that  which,  to  escape  the  idea  of  the 
irresistibility  of  all  immediate  divine  operations,  denies  all  im- 
mediateness  of  divine  influences,  leads  to  deistic  ideas.  Thus, 
by  identifying  the  operations  of  grace  with  those  of  the  Word, 
by  enduing  the  means  of  grace  with  divine  power,  it  makes 
them  operate  like  a  physical  force.  The  result,  though  not  so 
gross,  indeed,  is  yet  similar  to  the  opus  opcratuui  of  Romanism. 
As  the  latter  puts  the  Church  in  the  place  of  God,  removes 
God  into  a  distance  from  the  subjects  of  salvation,  and  presents 
the  Church  with  priests  and  sacraments  operating  magically; 
and  separates  between  the  souls  of  individual  men  and  God, 
thus  preventing  all  immediate  communion  between  them,  so  the 
former,  by  making  this  communion  not  to  be,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, communion  personally  with  God,  but  only  with  Him  as 
He  is  in  the  means  of  grace,  or  as  He  is  conveyed  by  them  as 
channels  ;  only  as  communion  with  Him,  through  impersonal 
organs, — leads  to  the  deism  which  so  separates  between  God 
and  the  world,  between  Creator  and  creature,  that  there  is  no  per- 
sonal communion  betzvccn  them.  And  if  this  was  the  tendency 
of  the  Old  Scholastic  Lutheranism,  then  that  of  the  modern  hier- 
archical Lutheranism — so  utterly  un-Lutheran  in  this,  respect — 
is  toward  pantheism.  This  hierarchical  idea  regards  the  Church 
as  the  body  of  Christ  in  the  sense  that  it  is  an  embodiment  and 
evolution  of  Christ.  As  pantheism  makes  the  universe  God- 
developed,  so  this  makes  the  Church,  simply  Christ-developed. 

"  The  idea,"  says  Julius  Mueller,  "  that  immediate  influence  of 
God  must  be  irresistible,  opened  the  zuay  for  the  rationalistic  re- 
jection of  all  supernatural  revelation.  It  proceeds  thus  :  The 
Son  of  God  appeared  in  the  world,  and  finished  the  work  of 
redemption.  God  then  took  care  that  through  the  inspiration 
of  the  Biblical  writers,  this  revelation  should  be  laid  down  in  a 
book,  which  is  committed,  in  connection  with  external  circum- 
stances, to  the  providence  of  God.  First,  the  Holy  Ghost  in  his 
living,  personal  operations  in  the  conversion  of  man,  is  set  aside 
in  Jionor  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  ;  then  in  honor  of  the  natural 
pozvers  of  man,  the  supernatural  operation  of  the   Holy  Scrip- 


408  THE    HOLY   SPIRIT    AND    THE    MEANS    OF    GRACE. 

tures  is  set  aside,  and  its  logico-moral  power  is  put  in  its  place ; 
and,  finally,  the  conclusion  is,  that  in  our  conversion  and  refor- 
mation there  is  nothing  supernatural ;  that  the  feelings,  etc.,  in- 
volved in  it,  are  no  greater  than  would  naturally  arise  from  a 
book,  of  which  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  it  is  a  word  of 
God.  From  the  idea  that  all  immediate  divine  operations  must 
be  irresistible,  and,  therefore,  must  be  rejected,  there  was  but 
one  step  to  the  position  that  if  God  operate  at  all  supernaturally , 
He  must  operate  zvitJi  irresistible  oiniupotence.'" 

As  the  communion  with  God  through  means  of  grace  is  per- 
sonal, the  true  idea  of  the  vioelus  operandi  of  assurance  of  sal- 
vation, of  regeneration  by  grace,  will  speculatively  be  attained, 
in  proportion  to  the  clearness  and  completeness  of  the  apprehen- 
sion of  the  divine  and  human  personality.  We  will  find,  in  apply- 
ing this  test  to  the  theories  in  question,  that  they  contain  germs 
out  of  which  came,  if  not  the  development  itself,  at  least 
occasions  and  impulses  to  the  development  of  the  modern 
Deistic  and  Pantheistic  modes  of  skeptical  thought.  They  nat- 
urally lead  also  to  the  rationalistic  idea  of  the  impossibility  of 
revelation  and  miracles.  The  philosophy  of  the  Church  being 
not  the  nezv  Christian,  but  the  old  heathen  philosophy — the  idea 
of  God  derived  from  sinful  man,  and  not  the  idea  given  by  the 
God  of  revelation  Himself  in  the  Bible;  the  revealed  idea  ap- 
propriated not  by  the  reason  in  its  insights,  but  ignored,  or,  at 
least,  retained  only  in  a  negative  form  by  the  mere  logical  under- 
standing in  its  notional  connections — is  it  any  wonder  that  men 
could  turn  it  into  forms  of  opposition  to  the  possibility  of  mir- 
acles? It  is  very  important,  therefore,  in  order  to  break  the 
force  of  these  objections,  to  show  that  they  arise  from  the  erron- 
eous idea  of  the  true  God ;  and  that,  if  men  are  to  believe  in  the 
possibility  of  revelation,  they  must  have  the  idea  of  that  God, 
who  alone  can  reveal  Himself,  and  who  has  revealed  Himself. 
If  we  would  remove  the  objections  to  the  possibility  of  miracles, 
we  must  exhibit  the  true  God  of  revelation.  We  must,  on  the 
one  hand,  eliminate  from  the  church-doctrine  all  the  corruptions 
xvhicJi  have  come  from  the  Jieathen  idea ;  and,  on  the  other,  keep 
it  akvays  in  close  connection  zvitJi  spiritual  experience.  We  cannot 
be  too  deeply  impressed,  by  all  this,  with  the  importance  of  the 
experimental  religion  so  much  insisted  on  by  Luther  and  the 
Pietists,  of  the   personal   assurance   of  salvation   through   faith. 


TRUE    RELIGION    A    DIVINE   WORK    IN    THE    SOUL.  4O9 

not  only  for  our  own  peace  and  for  the  conversion  of  souls,  but 
also  as  the  medium  of  the  true  ideas  of  God  and  man,  and 
consequently,  as  the  source  of  a  true  theological  science  The 
same  thing  will  be  found  to  be  the  case  in  the  idea  of  the  rela- 
tion of  divine  grace  to  the  human  will  in  the  production  of  per- 
sonal assurance  of  salvation.  Theology  should  always  remem- 
ber that  it  deals  here  with  what  Luther  calls  "a  divine  work  in 
the  soul" — the  work  of  a  personal  agent  in  a  personal  subject ;  a 
work  in  which  the  divine  will  and  the  human  will  are  reciprocal; 
in  which  the  divine  fullness  and  human  want  are  commensurate, 
and  divine  productivity  and  human  receptivity  correspond  to 
each  other. 


CHAPTER     X. 

THE   APPLICATION    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN     IDEA    OF     GOD    AND     MAN 

TO    THE    MODUS    OPERANDI    OF    ASSURANCE    OF    SALVATION TO 

THE     RELATION     OF     DIVINE    GRACE     TO    THE    HUMAN    WILL IN 

THE    LIGHT    OF   THE    PRINCIPLE    OF   THE    REFORMATION. 

According  to  the  principle  of  the  Reformation — according  to 
the  idea  of  the  divine  and  human  personah'ty  as  we  must  now 
apprehend  it — no  theory  of  the  assurance  of  salvation,  which 
entirely  ignores  the  human  will,  which  regards  the  divine 
agency  as  suspending  or  excluding  the  personal  agency  of  the 
subject — can  be  regarded  as  true.  God's  goodness  can  be  be- 
stowed upon  the  whole  universe — upon  impersonal  as  well  as 
personal  beings.  But  His  love  is  a  personal  quality ;  it  has  only 
personal  objects.  When  God,  who  is  love,  communicates  Him- 
self to  the  creature,  it  is  an  ethical  process.  This  love  must  be 
holy  love,  or  the  distinction  of  Creator  and  creature  would  cease 
to  be ;  and,  of  course,  the  communication  would  cease ;  for  the 
creature — the  receptivity — would  have  ceased  to  be ;  the  object 
of  love,  of  holy,  ethical  love  would  have  ceased  to  be.  Love 
must  preserve  its  object,  must  neither  absorb  its  distinct  exist- 
ence, nor  suspend  its  personal  operations.  God  does  not  lose 
Himself,  nor  does  man  lose  his  personal,  distinct  being  in  the 
operation  of  regeneration  and  sanctification.  As  justification 
is  a  matter  of  personal  experience,  it  involves  voluntary  move- 
ments in  the  subject  of  salvation.  But  the  erroneous  view 
which  excludes  all  such  movements  is  found  in  the  scholastic 
systems  of  the  post-Reformation  era,  in  both  the  Lutheran  and 
the  Reformed  churches. 

§   I.   TJiey  Treat  Man  as  a  Merc  Passive  Subject  of  Dhnne 
Operations. 

Both  of  them  properly  rejected  the  Pelagian  idea  that  the 
movement  in  saving  faith  originates  in  man,  and  adopted  the 
doctrine  of  Augustine  that  it  must  come  from  God.  But  they 
apprehended  no  point  of  union  between  the  influence  of  divine 

(410) 


PURE    PASSIVITY    IN    REGENERATION.  4 1  I 

grace  and  the  action  of  the  human  ivill.  They  seemed  to  regard 
them  as  mutually  and  necessarily  excluding  one  another  in 
their  operations.  The  Calvinistic  theory,  adopting  the  ideas  of 
Augustine,  said  :  Our  works  are  evidence  of  the  reality  of  that 
faith  which  is  produced  by  the  Holy  Spirit  alone  and  produced 
only  in  the  elect.  The  fruits  of  faith,  therefore,  in  a  holy  life,  are 
the  evidence  of  our  personal  election  to  salvation,  and,  thus,  we 
have  assurance  of  salvation.  It  made  man  a  mere  passive  sub- 
ject of  divine  and  irresistible  grace ;  and  in  the  moment  of  his 
regeneration,  he  is  as  unconscious  of  the  process  involved  in 
the  origination  of  his  spiritual  life,  as  he  was  in  the  generation 
of  his  natural  life. 

The  Lutheran  theory  rejected  the  doctrine  of  unconditional 
election  and  irresistible,  special  grace ;  and  made  the  Word  and 
Sacraments  the  revelation  of  the  saving  will  of  God  or  of  the 
decree  of  God's  grace.  If  then  we  have  faith  in  Christ,  we  have 
in  this  faith  the  assurance  of  salvation.  For  as  this  faith  could 
not  be  without  the  saving  power  of  God,  as  it  could  not  have 
originated  from  ourselves,  it  must  have  been  wrought  in  us  by 
the  Spirit  of  God  through  the  Word  and  Sacraments.  Man  is 
entirely  passive  in  regeneration ;  he  is  like  a  "  block  or  stone," 
with  only  this  difference,  that  he  has  power  to  resist.  But  so  far 
as  any  agency  is  concerned  he  is  a  passive  subject  of  another's 
agency.  As  Andreae,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  authors  of 
the  Formula  of  Concord  says,  by  way  of  illustration,  in  one  of 
his  sermons  :  "  The  subject  of  regeneration  has  just  as  much  to 
do  with  the  regeneration  of  his  soul  as  the  malefactor  has  with 
his  execution — with  the  fact  that  there  will  be  an  execution.  Just 
as  he  might  say  to  the  curious  crowd  who  were  rushing  head- 
long toward  the  place :  '  Don't  be  in  a  hurry,  good  people,  there 
can't  be  any  hanging  till  I  get  there  ; '  so  the  subject  of  re- 
generation, if  he  could  foresee  the  time  and  place  of  his  regen- 
eration, could  say :  'That  case  of  regeneration  cannot  take  place 
till  I  get  there.'  He  must  be  there ;  that  is  all.  There  must  be 
the  subject  of  the  execution  in  the  one  case,  and  the  subject  of 
regeneration  in  the  other ;  but  in  both  cases,  the  subjects  are 
entirely  and  equally  passive  ;  they  have  no  agency  ;  others  pro- 
duce the  entire  effect  without  them,  except  as  subjects  upon 
which  to  operate."  Man  is  in  regeneration  as  unconscious  of 
the  process  as  he  was  in  his  original  creation.     He  knows  only 


412  RELATION    OF    DIVINE    GRACE    TO    THE    HUMAN    WILL. 

the  result,  faith  and  its  fruits,  and  the  means  by  which  it  has 
been  produced.  All  conscious  experience  of  the  change  itself 
is  excluded. 

§  2.  //  7S  only  zvJien  Assurance  of  Salvation  becomes  maitily  a 
Question  of  Intellect,  apart  from  Experience,  that  Difficulties 
Begin. 

As  long  as  the  experience  of  justification  by  faith  is  lively  and 
prevalent,  and  men  have  not  yet  to  meet  the  errors  and  perver- 
sions of  truth  and  experience  which  always  spring  up  in  the 
greatest  and  purest  revivals,  there  is  little  interest  in  the  question 
concerning  the  mode  of  the  inner  assurance  of  salvation  or  the 
objective  certainty  of  truth.  This  has  been  settled  by  the  wit- 
ness of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  heart,  and  the  self-evidencing 
power  of  the  gospel  to  the  soul.  "  He  that  believeth  on  the 
Son  hath  eternal  life."  He  is  in  the  possession  of  life,  and  his 
experience  of  this  new  life  is  the  experience  of  immortal  life. 
The  believing  soul  has,  therefore,  a  satisfactory  assurance  of 
salvation  ;  realizing  the  peace  of  God  in  inner  experience ;  feel- 
ing itself  to  be  in  sympathy  with  God  in  Christ,  and  in  a  state 
of  accordance  with  His  Word ;  enjoying  salvation  at  the  present 
moment,  and  assured  in  its  hope  of  the  future ;  full  of  love  and 
joy;  unspeakably  happy  in  this  salvation,  it  cannot  raise  the 
question  of  its  certainty  or  of  the  modus  operandi  of  the  assur- 
ance which  it  feels.  But  when  the  glow  of  piety  subsides,  and 
circumstances  make  it  necessary  to  pass  beyond  experience ; 
when  the  doctrine  of  the  certainty  of  this  experience  begins  to 
be  abused  and  perverted ;  or  when  polemical  interests  and  spec- 
ulative tendencies  lead  men  to  make  the  subject  of  religion  a 
matter  mainly  of  the  understanding — the  question  will  arise  : 
Is  there  good  ground  for  this  assurance?  How  do  I  come  to 
this  certainty  ?  Why  am  I  thus  sure  of  my  salvation  ?  What 
is  the  evidence  that  my  state  of  mind,  this  faith,  is  the  work  of 
God?  And  various  answers  will  be  given  to  the  inquiry.  And 
this  separation  of  the  intellectual  apprehension  from  the  experi- 
ence in  consciousness,  did  occur.  "  Inasmuch,"  says  Dorner, 
"  as  together  with  the  forgiveness  or  jnstificatio  appropriated  in 
faith  there  is  posited  a  new  state  of  life,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at  that,  for  example,  in  the  Apology  to  the  Aug.sburg  Confes- 
sion, faith  is  still  regarded  as  renewing  as  well  as  justifying,  yea, 


THEORY    OF    IRRESISTIBLE   SPECIAL    GRACE.  413 

that  jiistificatio  is  also  called  renovatio  and  regeneratio,  whilst 
the  Formula  of  Concord  seeks  speculatively  or  in  idea  more 
strictly  to  distinguish  what  is  still  with  it,  not  actually  separa- 
ted ;  but  which,  at  a  later  day,  resulted  too  often  in  an  actual 
separation  of  that  which  belongs  together." 

When  it  became  a  question  of  intellect,  various  answers  were 
given  to  the  inquiry  for  the  modus  operandi  of  assurance  of 
salvation.  The  Reformers  were  all  agreed  respecting  the  great 
truths  of  sin  and  grace  which  distinguished  them,  on  the  one 
hand,  from  the  Romanists,  and  from  the  mystical  parties  on  the 
other.  They  were  all  agreed  concerning  the  natural  depravity 
of  man,  and  the  fact  that  faith  is  produced  by  divine  grace  alone. 
But  when  the  question  arose :  How  do  we  know  that  this  is  a 
real  work  of  grace  in  our  souls  ?  and  especially  when  this  ques- 
tion was  transferred  from  the  sphere  of  living  experience  to  that 
of  the  logical  understanding — from  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  to 
the  testimony  of  theology — then  different  theories  were  origi- 
nated. 

§  3.   TJie  Tlicory  of  Unconditional  Election,  and  Irresistible  Special 

Grace. 

Some  fell  back  on  the  doctrine  of  absolute  predestination,  of 
unconditional  election  to  eternal  life — an  election  revealed  in 
irresistible,  special  grace,  as  producing  saving  faith,  and  thus 
assurance  of  salvation.  They  so  separated  between  the  Spirit 
and  the  Word,  between  the  force  of  the  means  of  grace  and  the 
power  of  grace  itself,  as  to  teach  that  as  the  Word  alone  could 
not  have  been  efficacious  to  produce  this  change,  to  work  this 
faith,  it  must  have  been  the  work  of  electing  love,  of  discrimi- 
nating grace ;  and  the  fact  of  regeneration  is  the  evidence  of  our 
election  to  eternal  life,  and  the  assurance  of  our  perseverance  in 
a  state  of  justification  unto  the  end.  This — the  Calvinistic  pre- 
destination— is  the  Augustinian  theory,  with  the  addition  of  the 
distinct  apprehension  of  justification  by  faith  alone,  and  the 
elimination  of  the  idea  of  love  as  the  form  of  faith,  and  as  an 
element  of  justifying  faith.  It  said  :  I  am  sure  of  salvation,  not- 
withstanding my  sinfulness  and  depravity,  my  numerous  in- 
firmities and  frequent  aberrations ;  I  shall  be  saved  from  all 
my  delinquencies,  and  restored  after  every  fall,  because  of  the 
unconditional  divine  election  manifested  in  my  regeneration,  in 


414  RELATION    OF    DIVINE    GRACE   TO    THE    HUMAN    WILL. 

my  faith.  The  soul  cannot  have,  and  need  not  have,  any  per- 
sonal experience  of  the  process  of  regeneration ;  it  is  entirely 
passive  under  the  power  of  an  irresistible  divine  operation.  It 
can  know  regeneration  and  faith  only  by  their  fruits  in  a  holy 
life. 

§  4.   The  System    Which  Makes  the    Word  and  Sacraments  the 
Efficacious  Revelation  of  Saving  Grace. 

Others  regarded  the  justifying  grace  of  God  as  always  effica- 
ciously present,  producing  regeneration,  working  faith  wherever 
and  whenever  it  is  not  resisted,  and  maintained  that  this  regen- 
eration— this  faith  itself — is  the  assurance  of  salvation.  It  said: 
I  am  sure  of  my  salvation ;  for,  notwithstanding  my  sinfulness, 
the  Word  and  Sacraments  are  not  only  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation  to  all  that  believe,  but  they  are  a  constant  pledge  of 
grace  to  me  individually;  if  I  fall,  I  can  always  be  restored 
again  by  the  power  of  the  Word  and  the  Sacraments ;  the  day 
of  grace — over  the  entire  duration  of  which  the  grace  of  bap- 
tism extends — reaches  to  the  end  of  life.  Besides,  the  Word 
and  Sacraments  not  only  signify  grace,  but  they  convey  what 
they  signify.  They  are  not  only  pledges  of  grace  and  means 
of  grace,  but  channels  of  that  grace  conveying  the  blessing  of 
salvation  into  my  soul  when  I  do  not  resist,  or  when  I  cease  to 
resist. 

This  is  the  strict  Lutheran  theory.  Luther  had  taken  posi- 
tions, in  his  controversies  with  the  fanatics  who  abused,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  doctrine  of  inner  and  personal  experience,  and,  on 
the  other,  neglected  and  even  rejected  the  idea  of  the  necessity 
of  external  means  of  grace — positions  which,  in  his  case,  as  we 
have  seen,  were  not  only  consistent  with  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation,  of  justification  by  faith,  but  required  by  it ;  but 
men  afterwards  availed  themselves  of  some  of  these  positions  to 
frame  this  theory  of  assurance  of  salvation.  This  party,  not 
always  sharing  in  the  practical,  personal  experience  which 
Luther  had,  not  always  appreciating  as  Luther  did  the  vital  rela- 
tions of  saving  truth,  maintained  this  theory  especially  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  the  unconditional  decree  to 
salvation,  and  of  the  separate  and  independent  operations  of 
saving  grace.  The  theory  in  its  full  development  is  the  Roman 
doctrine,  with   the  addition   of   the    distinct  apprehension   and 


THE   STRICT    LUTHERAN   THEORY.  415 

emphatic  annunciation  of  justification  by  faith  alone,  and  the 
ehmination  of  the  idea  that  the  efficacy  of  the  Word  and  Sacra- 
ments depends  upon  the  intention  of  the  Church  or  the  priest. 
The  Word  and  Sacraments  are  efficacious  in  themselves,  invested 
and  endued  by  God  with  supernatural,  divine  power,  and  are  in- 
dependent, in  this  respect,  of  the  Church  as  an  external  organism. 
Nor  are  they  dependent  for  their  efficacy  upon  the  will  of  the 
subject  of  salvation ;  they  only  become  efficacious  for  salvation 
to  the  individual  by  faith,  and  that  faith  which  they  themselves 
produce  in  him.  Their  validity  is  independent  of  our  subjective 
state.  They  produce  their  effects  of  themselves,  by  inherent, 
divine  power.  They  are  manifestations  of  God;  and  just  as 
the  objective  salvation  was  wrought  out  by  the  Incarnate  Word 
independently  of  me,  so  is  the  subjective  salvation  produced  by 
the  Word  (the  Sacraments  being  vcrbuin  visibile)  of  the  Incar- 
nate Word,  without  my  agency.  I  am  but  the  passive  subject 
of  the  divine  operations.  I  have  only  power  to  resist,  not  to 
yield.  If  I  do  not  resist  or  cease  to  resist,  the  work  is  effectual, 
and  I  am  saved.  This  theory,  consequently,  like  that  of  the 
predestinarian,  ignores  the  will  of  the  subject,  makes  man  the 
passive  subject  of  divine  operations,  and  places  the  entire  pro- 
cess of  regeneration  beyond  the  sphere  of  any  experience  in 
consciousness. 

§  5 .   The  Theory  zvJiich  Recognizes  a  Point  of  Union  between  Di- 
vine Grace  and  The  Human  Will  in  Regeneration. 

But  there  were  others  in  the  Lutheran  Church,  who,  keeping 
in  view  the  idea  of  the  personality  of  God  and  of  man,  especially 
the  ethical  nature  of  both  Creator  and  creature,  the  distinction 
between  them,  and  the  essential  freedom  of  both  as  revealed  in 
justification  by  faith — in  the  guilt  of  sin  and  the  gratuitousness 
of  grace, — felt  that  man  could  not  be  entirely  passive.  Deeply 
conscious  of  the  spiritual  and  active  nature  of  the  human  soul, 
they  rejected  the  idea  that  it  could  be  treated  as  a  mere  "  block 
or  stone ;"  and  they,  consequently,  combined  the  grace  of  God, 
the  Word  and  the  human  will,  in  the  idea  of  the  production  of 
this  saving  change.  And  while  they  regarded  man  as  purely 
passive  in  relation  to  the  freeness  of  justification ;  the  grace  of 
God  as  the  producing  cause  in  regeneration ;  saving  faith  in  its 
origination,  preservation  and  completion  as  the  work  of  the  di- 


4l6  RELATION    OF    DIVINE    GRACE    TO    THE    HUMAN    WILL, 

vine  Spirit ;  and  the  Word  and  Sacraments  as  the  means  and 
pledges  of  justifying  and  sanctifying  grace, — yet  they  would  not 
forget  that  the  subject  of  salvation  is  still  a  personal  being;  that 
freedom  of  choice  is  an  essential  element  of  his  existence ;  that 
without  it,  he  would  not  be  human  ;  and,  consequently,  as  it 
could  not  be  lost  by  the  fall,  however  much  it  might  be  obstructed 
and  perverted  by  sin,  it  must  not  only  be  present,  but  called  into 
action  in  the  moment  of  regeneration,  or  the  subject  of  that 
change  would  not  be  a  real  man,  not  a  true  human  being. 
While  they  regarded  God  as  the  sole  author  and  finisher  of  the 
work  of  saving  faith,  they  would  remember  that  as  God  is  a 
personal  being,  He  would  manifest  His  power  over  man,  not  in 
the  way  of  a  physical  force,  but  as  a  moral  power ;  and  that  as 
man  is  a  personal  being,  God  would  deal  with  him  as  an  ethical 
subject,  and  not  as  with  a  "  block  or  stone,"  "  differing  only  from 
the  material  block  or  stone  in  that  he  has  the  power  to  resist." 
They  would  remember  that  as  God  has  chosen  to  give  distinct 
and  free  existence  to  man,  He  would  treat  him  as  a  spiritual  and 
personal  being,  and  not  as  a  mere  nature-object.  They  would 
remember  that  as  He  has  chosen  to  limit  Himself  in  the  exer- 
cise of  His  power  by  allowing  the  existence  of  personal  beings, 
beings  made  capable  by  His  own  creative  hand,  of  self-action; 
as  He  has  by  His  own  gift  bestowed  upon  man  self-determining 
power  in  his  ethical  relations, — so  He  would  condition  His  de- 
crees, and  adapt  His  operations  to  the  nature  of  this  free 
agency  in  the  work  of  regeneration,  that  is,  would  call  forth  the 
voluntary  acts  of  the  subject.  And  as  God  by  the  revelation 
of  His  holiness,  brings  men  to  negative  repentance  or  conviction 
of  sin;  and  by  His  Spirit  through  the  instrumentality  of  the 
Word  and  Sacraments,  produces  in  them  positive  repentance  and 
living  faith, — so  He  would  excite  in  them  also  the  consciousness 
of  acceptance  with  Him — of  forgiveness  of  sin  and  the  certainty 
of  salvation.  And,  as  He  is  perpetually  dealing  with  men 
through  these  revelations  and  pledges  of  His  prevenient  and 
pardoning  grace ;  they  have  the  constant  assurance  of  salvation 
— assurance  of  salvation,  notwithstanding  their  infirmities  and 
short-comings.  And  in  ail  this  as  God  acts  immediately  in  con- 
nection with  the  means  of  grace,  He  allows,  yea  anticipates,  ex- 
pects a  response  from  the  human  will.  This  theory  includes  all 
the  elements  involved  in  the  experience  of  the  assurance  of  sal- 


THE    PROPER    COMPLEMENT    OF    LUTHER  S    VIEW.  417 

vation ;  and,  in  some  form,  will  always  be  found  the  only  one 
perfectly  consistent,  not  only  with  the  fact,  but  also  with  the 
idea  of  experimental  religion. 

This  was  Melanchthon's  view,  well-known  to  Luther  and  tol- 
erated by  him.  It  was  the  first  statement  of  the  truth  freed 
from  the  one-sidedness  of  Augustine,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
error  of  Pelagius,  on  the  other.  And  though  it  was  a  somewhat 
imperfect  statement,  it  was  a  well-grounded  protest  against  the 
extreme  of  the  strict  Lutheran  party,  and  a  proper  complement 
of  Luther's  views.  It  was  condemned  as  synergism  by  the  For- 
mula of  Concord,  zvJiile  its  principle  zvas  vimiifestly  involved  in 
the  ground  on  zvhicli  that  creed  rejects  the  doctrine  of  absolute  pre- 
destination. The  elements  of  this  view  were  present  in  the  Lu- 
theran Church  at  a  very  early  day ;  they  have  existed  in  all  its 
history ;  have  modified,  more  or  less,  the  theology  of  the 
Church  at  all  times  ;  and  they  prevail,  to  a  great  extent,  in  ths 
present  systems  of  all  classes  of  Lutheran  theologians;  many 
of  the  most  rigid  adherents  of  the  Formula  of  Concord  being, 
more  or  less,  under  the  influence  of  the  Melanchthonian  ele- 
ment ;  some  even  acknowledging  that  injustice  has  been  done  to 
this  view  of  Melancthon,  and  that  the  creed  needs  modification 
on  this  point.  As  this  is  a  most  important  element  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  theology  of  our  Church,  we  must  insert  the 
following  very  satisfactory  view  of  the  subject,  taken  from 
"  Dorner's  History  of  Protestant  Theology"  :  "  If  Luther  be- 
lieved that  he  dared  not  interweave  freedom  in  the  process  of 
salvation,  because  he  feared  that  once  admitted,  it  would  irre- 
sistibly lead  to  the  reception  of  the  doctrine  of  "meritorious 
works,  and  to  the  denial  of  the  truth  that  all  good  is  derived 
from  God;  the  Church  of  the  German  Reformation  has  not  in 
this  attached  itself  to  Luther ;  but  very  early  there  is  observable 
a  counteraction,  more  immediately  on  the  part  of  the  laity, 
against  the  entire  denial  of  freedom.  And  this  is  also  expressed 
ofificially  in  the  first  public  Confession,  the  Augustana.  Me- 
lanchthon  and  other  theologians  were  led  by  consciousness  to 
abstain  from  presenting  Luther's  doctrine  of  predestination  as 
the  Common  Confession  of  the  Evangelical  Church.  Hence,  as 
Melanchthon  writes  to  Brentz,  there  was  a  designed  silence  con- 
cerning this  question  in  the  Confession;  the  liberiitin  arbitriuin  in 
civilibns  was  taught ;  and  in  reference  to  the  spiritual,  secondary 
27 


41 8  RELATION    OF    DIVINE    GRACE   TO    THE    HUMAN    WILL, 

causes  were  especially  emphasized,  without,  however,  concealing 
the  fact  that  Word  and  Sacrament  only  have  the  saving  efficacy 
which  is  potentially  in  them  when  and  where,  God  co-operates 
with  them  by  His  Spirit."  "  Melanchthon,  being  predominantly 
of  an  ethical  character  and  thereby  the  complement  of  Luther, 
sought  constantly  more  and  more  in  commentaries,  and  in  the 
later  editions  of  his  Loci,  to  secure  a  place  for  moral  freedom 
in  man."  "  And  the  express  monument  of  the  prevalence  of 
this  mode  of  thought  in  Germany  on  this  point  of  doctrine,  is 
the  fact  that  the  Formula  of  Concord,  though  unfavorable  to 
Melanchthonianism,  and  designed  to  suppress  it,  yet  on  this 
point,  if  it  does  not,  indeed,  adopt  its  doctrinal  type  in  particu- 
lars, does  still  adopt  its  fundamental  tendency,  and  seeks  to 
mediate  for  freedom  of  choice  an  indispensable  place." 

"Already  in  the  Saxon  Visitation  Articles  of  1527,  Melanch- 
thon, in  immediate  connection  with  the  religious,  gives  emphasis 
in  the  strongest  way  to  the  ethical  phases,  and  lays  such  stress 
upon  law  and  repentance,  that  it  drew  down  upon  him  the 
attacks  of  the  Antinomians.  Li  this  conflict  Luther  placed 
himself  decidedly  upon  the  side  of  Melanchthon,  and  in  his 
smaller  Catechism,  he  has  appropriated  a  proper  place  to  the 
ethical  material,  especially  the  Decalogue.  In  this  it  was  already 
manifest  that  the  evangelical  doctrine  of  the  freedom  of  the  will 
would  take  a  middle  course  between  Erasmianism  and  Antino- 
mianism.  But  Melanchthon  constantly  developed  more  and 
more  sharply  and  independently  his  ethico-religious  standpoint. 
In  the  edition  of  his  Loci  in  1533,  he  already  declared  against 
the  denial  of  contingency  in  the  relation  to  God,  and  calls  it 
Stoicism.  He  shows,  by  reference  to  antiquity,  that  conscience 
has  ever  remained  and  spoken  in  humanity,  yea,  was  an  acting 
factor.  He  thinks  that  the  conception  of  guilt  would  suffer  if 
every  moral  factor  on  the  side  of  the  will  were  denied,  whether 
it  were  by  divine  omnipotence  or  by  original  sin.  He  declares 
that  we  must  not  indulge  in  subtilties  concerning  election,  but 
hold  to  the  universal  promise.  Even  though  the  mercy  of  God 
is  the  cause  of  election,  we  may,  contemplating  the  matter  from 
below,  say  that  those  are  certainly  elected  who  appropriate  grace. 
But  there  is  also  a  certain  causality  of  the  justificatio  even  in 
him  who  receives  it,  though  not  a  worthiness^  "  He  does  not 
deny  the  spiritual  impotency  of  the  will,  but  it  is  strengthened 


INVOLVED    IN    THE    TRUE    IDEA    OF    PERSONALITY.  419 

by  the  Word  of  God,  to  which  it  can  attach  itself.  Thus  he 
comes  to  his  tJircc  cooperating  causes  of  salvation  :  The  Wofd, 
the  Ho/j'  Spirit,  and  the  JVi//  which  does  not  remain  inactive, 
but  resists  infirmities  in  sucli  a  viauner,  indeed,  that  God's  call 
and  helping  movement  precede  this  will  which  merits  nothing, 
but  occupies  only  an  instrumental  relation  to  salvation."  "  Man 
can  pray  for  help,  and  he  can  reject  grace.  This  he  calls  free 
will,  as  power  to  attach  itself  to  grace  {libcnim  arbitrimn,  as 
facultas  applicandi  scsc  ad  gratiavi) :  Grace  disposes  man  ;  he 
must  freely  consent  to  it.  Here  Melanchthon  does  not,  by  any 
means  (as  Frank,  Formula  of  Concord  I.  134,  thinks)  ascribe  to 
free  will  a  meritorious  causality  {causa  meritorid).  The  fides 
remains  for  him  "opjmw  l-n'miKov  instrumental  mediation,  the  pos- 
session of  salvation,  not  of  merit.  The  power  to  decide  for  the 
good  he  derives  in  every  instance  from  God — from  grace,  medi- 
ated by  the  Word,  which  is  conceived  of  as  essentially  preveni- 
ent  and  as  removing  the  effects  of  original  sin."  "  Finally,  we 
cannot  find  anything  essentially  blame-worthy  in  Melanchthon's 
doctrine  of  free  will.  In  its  real  meaning,  it  is  not,  indeed, 
touched  by  the  counter  propositions  of  the  Formula  of  Con- 
cord. He  designs  not  in  the  least,  to  limit  grace  or  to  magnify 
human  independence  of  God,  but  designs  the  preservation  of 
the  idea  of  the  guilt  of  sin,  and  the  ethical  character  of  the 
process  of  salvation,  and,  consequently,  that  the  work  of  con- 
version should  proceed  in  the  form  of  our  own  personal  con- 
sciousness and  choice,  which  cannot  be  denied  without  injury  to 
a  fundamental  tendency  of  the  Reformation — its  tendency  to 
recognizing  personality  in  God  and  man." 

This  fundamental  tendency  of  the  Reformation — its  tendency 
to  produce  a  clearer  apprehension  and  a  more  complete  appro- 
priation of  the  Christian  idea  of  the  personality  of  God  and  of 
man, — must  eventually  lead  to  the  rejection  of  the  doctrine  of 
unconditional  election  and  of  irresistible  grace,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  the  "  block  and  stone  "  theory  of  human  passivity  on  the 
other.  If  man  were  a  mere  nature-entity,  the  end  of  his  being 
would  be  determined  by  his  constitution ;  he  would  be  purely 
passive  under  the  operation  of  the  force  which  supplied  his 
wants  and  accomplished  his  destiny.  But  as  he  is  a  personal 
being;  the  end  for  which  he  exists  is  a  goal  the  attainment  of 
which  involves  personal   agency.     The  supply  of  his  personal 


420  RELATION    OF    DIVINE    GRACE   TO    THE    HUMAN    WILL, 

wants  as  a  finite  being  involves  free  divine  communication  and 
free  human  reception ;  and  his  regeneration  as  a  sinful  creature, 
free  divine  operation  and  free  human  submission.  It  involves 
personal  action  on  the  part  of  God,  and  a  personal  act  on  the 
part  of  man.  Though  it  must  be  regarded  as  merely  a  yielding 
act,  still  it  is  an  act ;  that  is,  the  subject  of  regeneration  is  not 
purely  passive.  The  regenerating  influence  originates  with  God, 
but  man  yields  to  it.  God  produces  the  change ;  man  accepts 
and  acts  it.  God  does  not  regenerate  man  without  calling  forth 
the  action  of  the  human  will.  Thus  the  true  Christian  idea  of 
God  and  man,  as  the  experience  of  faith  enables  men  more  and 
more  to  apprehend  it,  will  restrict  the  Augustinianism  both  of 
the  Calvinistic  predestinarian  and  of  the  strict  Lutheran  theories, 
and  so  modify  and  complete  that  of  Melanchthon  as  to  free  it 
from  any  unevangelical  synergism. 

§  6.   The  View  Required  by  the  Principle  of  the  Reformation. 

The  Augustinian  theory  is  right  as  against  the  Pelagian  idea 
of  the  powers  of  man  ;  of  his  power  as  a  finite  being  to  produce 
the  good  and  to  originate  holiness,  of  his  ability  as  a  sinful 
creature  to  inititate  the  process  of  regeneration,  of  his  acting 
separately  and  independently  of  God,  of  his  capability  to  per- 
form meritorious  works,  and  of  his  being  able  positively  and 
actively  to  contribute  to  his  regeneration ;  for  this  Pelagian  idea 
is  certainly  not  the  true  and  complete  speculative  apprehension 
of  man's  nature  and  relations  to  God.  But  the  Augustinian 
idea  is  imperfect  and  one-sided.  It  overlooks  the  fact  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  Scriptures,  man  is  a  spirit ;  that  willing  is  as  much 
an  element  of  his  nature,  as  thinking  and  feeling ;  that  he  is 
made  for  the  infinite  ;  that  he  has  an  inseparable  relation  to  God ; 
that  he  does  not  find  his  origin  or  end  in  the  mere  life  of  his 
species,  but  only  in  God  ;  that  the  individual  man  has  not  only 
a  general  character  derived  from  the  race,  but  a  personal  peculi- 
arity which  comes  from  his  immediate  relation  to  God  ;  that  he 
belongs  to  the  kingdom  of  spirits  as  well  as  to  the  kingdom  of 
nature ;  that  he  has  an  impress  from  the  finger  of  God,  as  well 
as  a  bent  from  the  depravity  of  the  race.  It  overlooks  the  fact 
that  according  to  the  Scriptures  there  is  yet  remaining  in  every 
man,  though  obscured  by  natural  depravity,  the  image  of  God. 
His  life  is  to  be   regarded  as   sacred,   and  the  great    guilt  of 


THE    PELAGIAN    ERROR    FUNDAMENTAL.  421 

murder  is  that  "  In  the  image  of  God  made  He  man  ;"  "  the 
world  of  iniquity  that  the  tongue  is,"  is  that  it  "  curses  men 
which  are  made  after  the  simihtude  of  God."  It  overlooks  the 
fact  that  man  is  a  personal  spirit,  though  he  is  obstructed  by  the 
bondage  of  sin,  that  he  has  capacity  for  truth,  though  so  deluded 
"  by  the  blindness  of  the  heart,"  that  he  "  holds  the  truth  in 
unrighteousness ;"  that  men  "  should  seek  the  Lord,  if  haply 
they  might  feel  after  Him  and  find  Him ;"  that  they  have  a  con- 
sciousness of  God  ;  "  that  that  which  may  be  known  of  God  is 
manifest  in  them  ;"  "  that  they  are  a  law  unto  themselves  ;"  have 
a  conscience,  a  moral  imperative  binding  them  to  God  and 
pointing  them  to  eternity,  "  their  thoughts  meanwhile  accusing 
or  else  excusing  one  another;"  and,  consequently,  that  men  have 
still  a  spiritual  susceptibility.  The  Scriptures  recognize  every 
man  as  having  his  being  under  the  illuminating  influence  of  the 
same  Logos  from  whom  he  has  his  existence,  and  as  having 
susceptibilities  to  which  the  gospel  attaches  itself 

While  Pelagianism  regards  man  in  his  nature  so  separate  and 
independent  as  to  have  a  Deistic  tendency,  Augustinianism  also 
acts,  as  if  man  by  the  fall,  were  out  of  all  spiritual  relation  to  God; 
as  if  there  were  an  actual  separation,  in  which  the  movement 
for  union  must  not  only  begin  with  God,  but  must  be  initiated 
as  independently  of  man,  as  much  without  his  agency,  as  much 
leaving  him  out  of  the  question,  as  it  would  be,  if  he  had  fallen 
out  of  existence ;  as  if  there  were  in  him  no  relation  of  a  spir- 
itual nature  whatever  to  God  and  His  operations  ;  as  if  the  pro- 
cess of  regeneration  were  as  arbitrary  and  mechanical  as  the 
Deist's  view  of  God  and  the  world ;  as  if  he  were  not  only 
created  anew,  but  dc  novo  ;  nothing  existing  in  his  spiritual  na- 
ture to  condition  the  divine  action  ;  as  if  it  were  the  annihilation 
of  the  individual  and  the  literal  creation  <5f  a  new  man.  Ow  the 
other  hand,  like  Pantheism,  it  makes  individual  men  seem  to  be 
mere  phenomenal  manifestations  of  the  divine  life — not  images 
of  God  and  organs  of  His  revelation. 

Now  the  principle  of  the  Reformation  preserves  the  distinction 
and  the  relation  between  God  and  man.  It  brings  to  conscious 
experience  and  clear  apprehension,  not  only  the  distinction  of 
creatorship  and  creatureship,  and  of  the  holiness  of  God  and 
the  sinfulness  of  man  ;  but,  in  these  distinctions,  the  point  of 
contact  between  the  Holy  God  and  the  sinful   creature,  between 


422  RELATION    OF    DIVINE    GRACE    TO    THE    HUMAN    WILL. 

Christianity  and  human  nature,  by  the  conception  of  sin  and 
grace  in  the  hght  of  the  personaHty  of  man  and  the  Holy  Free- 
dom of  God ;  the  apprehension  and  appropriation  of  the  Scrip- 
tural idea  of  the  relation  between  God  and  man,  of  divine  grace 
and  human  capacity ;  of  God  as  free  to  punish  the  sinner,  but  as 
having  a  divine  necessity  of  atonement  for  sin,  if  he  would  par- 
don ;  of  the  nature  of  man,  not  as  merely  passive  before  God, 
but  as  also  receptive,  a  being  who,  while  unable  to  merit  or  orig- 
inate or  produce,  is  free  to  accept,  in  opposition  to  the  "  block 
and  stone"  idea  of  the  strict  Lutheran  theory,  and  to  the  notion 
of  irresistible  grace  involved  in  the  Calvinistic  predestination. 
On  the  other  hand  it  would  modify  or  guard  the  Melanch- 
thonian  view  by  bringing  to  clear  light  this  spiritual  susceptibility 
more  as  a  receptivity  than  a  productivity,  more  as  a  yielding,  as  an 
accepting  act,  an  act  put  forth  only  under  divine  injluence,  tJian  as 
an  act  zvhich  is  self -originated.  It  would  make  the  experience 
of  the  guilt  of  sin  and  the  operations  of  the  human  conscience, 
the  witness  to  the  present  sinfulness  of  man,  the  evidence  of  his 
original  holiness  and  blessed  relation  to  God ;  and  his  present 
capacity,  not  religious  productivity  but  spiritual  receptivity.  It 
represents  man  as  in  a  state  of  sin,  as  fallen,  indeed,  and  alien- 
ated, but  not  separated  from  God ;  not  as  having  lost  his  relation 
to  God,  but  as  being  sinful  and  unhappy  in  it.  There  must  be 
a  meeting  of  the  divine  will  and  the  Imman  zvill.  Tliere  must  be 
movements  on  the  part  of  God  and  man-;  and  the  movements 
must  begin  with  God,  but  they  are  not  arbitrary.  The  atonement 
is  as  much  a  divine  necessity  as  repentance  is  a  human  neces- 
sity, if  there  are  to  be  forgiveness  of  sin  and  reconciliation  be- 
tween God  and  man — not  a  physical  or  metaphysical  necessity, 
but  a  moral  necessity.  Even  the  creation  of  the  world  was  not 
a  necessity  to  God,  but  having  created  a  moral  world  into  which 
sin  has  come,  forgiveness  of  the  sinful  creature  involves  the  neces- 
sity of  atonement.  The  atonement  being  made  and  man  repent- 
ant, God  reconciled  and  man  believing,  harmony  between  God 
and  man  is  re-established,  and  a  real,  living  beginning  of  the 
realization  of  the  idea  of  man's  existence  is  made.  Now  in  the 
accomplishment  of  this  end,  it  would  regard  God  as  the  originator 
and  producer  of  all,  as  taking  the  initiative.  But  it  would  also 
have  us  regard  the  facts  of  reason,  conscience,  intellectual 
endowments,  as  all  involved  in  spiritual  regeneration  and  relig- 


SERIOUS    DEFECTS    OF   AUGUSTIANINISM.  423 

ious  life  :  man  as  sinful,  but  still  personal,  still  having  traces  of 
the  image  of  God — all  points  of  contact  for  divine  grace.  The 
man  is  only  brought  into  his  normal  state ;  the  true  Chris- 
tian being  the  true  man.  He  is  related  to  grace  as  the  earth 
is  to  the  sun ;  he  needs  grace  and  he  is  receptive  of  it.  He 
is  related  to  grace  as  the  earth  to  "  the  rain  that  cometh  down 
from  heaven  and  returneth  not  thither,  but  watereth  it,  and 
maketh  it  bring  forth  and  bud."  He  has  not  natural  nor  moral, 
but  he  has  gracious  ability — ability  through  the  relation  into  which 
he  is  brouglit  to  God  by  prevenient  grace.  He  is  not  productive, 
but  he  is  receptive  ;  God  produces  all,  but  not  zvitJiont  man's  act- 
ing all.  Man  cannot,  of  himself,  realize  the  idea  or  attain  the 
goal  of  his  being.  But  his  wants  and  divine  grace  correspond 
to  each  other ;  his  receptivity  and  the  gift  of  divine  life  are  com- 
mensurate. The  gift  of  the  Spirit  is  inseparable  from  the  gift  of 
the  Son.  Divine  grace  is  the  productive  power;  human  want 
the  receptive  power;  the  divine  Spirit  the  illuminating  power, 
the  human  soul  the  apprehending  power.  God  alone  can  give ; 
man  can  only  receive.  The  principle  of  the  Reformation  gives 
the  true  theistic  idea  which  neither  separates  God  from  man  as 
does  Deism ;  nor  confounds  God  with  him  as  does  Pantheism — 
the  true  idea  of  God,  not  as  mere  abstract  being  but  concrete  life, 
not  as  extensively  but  intensively  infinite,  the  living  God  acting 
in  close  connection  with  the  creatures  He  has  made,  and  with  the 
institutions  He  has^  ordained  for  the  attainment  of  their  destina- 
tion. By  its  iDuon  of  experiotce  and  reason,  of  fact  and  thought, 
it  gives  not  a  mere  idealistic  or  spiritualistic,  but  a  realistic  idea  of 
the  divine  operations.  It  involves  the  conception  of  a  contact  of 
the  divine  and  the  Jiuman  in  the  regeneration  and  sanctification  of 
the  sold  ;  and  as  the  soul  is  a  personal  being,  it  cannot  be  merely 
and  purely  passive  in  tins  change.  It  would  have  us  notice  the 
fact  that  there  is  in  every  man  an  organ  for  religion  ;  that  relig- 
ion is  a  life-element  prevailing  in  some  way  universally  and  nec- 
essarily among  men  ;  and  the  fact  that  God  has  given  a  general 
revelation,  and  that  as  man  has  belief  in  the  reality  of  natural 
objects  only  because  he  has  receptivity  for  impressions  from  the 
external  world,  so  to  have  faith  in  religious  realities,  he  must 
have  receptivity  for  divine  influences ;  and  consequently,  he 
cannot  be  entirely  passive  in  regeneration.  This  is  the  only 
theory  that  is  entirely  consistent  with  the  idea  of  experimental 


424  RELATION    OF    DIVINE    GRACE    TO    THE    HUMAN    WILL. 

relig-ion.  Hence  Melanchthon  indignantly  rejects  the  Romish 
figment  of  the  opus  opcratuui  of  the  Sacraments  which,  as  he 
says  in  the  Apology  to  the  Augsburg  Confession  :  "  Imagines 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  given  through  them  without  any  good 
motions  of  the  recipient ;  as  if  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  were 
a  matter  in  which  we  ourselves  needed  not  to  be  active."  A 
Luther  whose  piety  was  so  original  and  deep-rooted  that  it  was 
not  only  independent  of,  but  in  a  great  measure  separate  from, 
theology,  would  not  so  fully  realize  this  as  a  Melanchthon,  the 
man  of  science,  whose  piety,  though  equally  sincere  and  earnest, 
was  more  immediately  connected  with  his  theology,  yea,  was  so 
inseparable  from  theological  thought,  that  he  could  declare — 
what  every  theologian  ought  to  be  able  to  say — that  his  own 
spiritual  edification  was  constantly  in  his  view  in  all  his  theolog- 
ical labors.  Faith,  as  we  have  seen,  is  independent,  for  its  exist- 
ence, of  science ;  but  when  it  does  enter  into  connection  with  it, 
it  will  be  promoted  or  hindered,  according  as  the  ideas  of  the 
latter  are  or  are  not  consistent  with  its  purity  and  power.  So 
this  question  of  assurance  of  salvation  having  once  become  a 
question  of  intellect,  the  Melanchthonian  theory  becomes  very 
important.  It  is  the  system  which  will  always  enter  deeply  into 
a  living  theolog>^  As  this  has  been  the  tendency  from  the  days 
of  Arndt  and  Spener  down  to  the  latest  revival,  so  it  ever  will 
be  the  tendency  most  closely  connected  with  experimental  and 
practical  religion.    . 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE  NEED  AND  BENEFIT  OF  SUCH  A  RETURN  TO  THE  PRINCIPLE 
OF  THE  LUTHERAN  REFORMATION  IN  THIS  AGE  AND  IN  THIS 
COUNTRY. 

§  I .   TJie  Great  and  Imperishable  Interests  of  Theology. 

Some  say  that  theology  is  on  the  wane  ;  that  its  days  are 
numbered  :  that  it  will  soon  be  no  more.  This  is  as  much  evi- 
dence of  shallow  views  of  the  nature  and  relations  of  things  as 
was  the  attempt  of  the  skeptics  in  the  last  age  to  expound  reli- 
gion as  the  result  of  priestcraft.  Theology  will  always  live.  It 
is  the  most  important  of  all  sciences — scientia  scientiarnm.  Its 
subject  is  the  deepest  in  its  relations  and  the  most  comprehensive 
in  its  range ;  the  noblest  in  its  sentiments  and  the  highest  in  its 
end;  the  greatest  element  in  all  the  institutions  of  men,  and  the 
mightiest  power  in  all  the  movements  of  human  society,  giving 
the  highest  degree  of  intensity  to  the  capacities  and  energies, 
the  thoughts  and  feelings,  the  purposes  and  efforts,  the  labors 
and  conflicts,  the  joys  and  hopes,  the  self-denials  and  the  sacri- 
fices, of  the  children  of  men.  Goethe  only  gives  us  evidence  of 
the  great  mind  that  he  was,  and  that  he  was  great  as  a  philoso- 
pher as  well  as  a  poet,  when  he  says  :  "  The  conflict  between 
belief  and  unbelief  is  the  deepest — the  sole  problem  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  world."  As  religion,  however  much  it  may,  at  times, 
be  neglected  or  perverted,  will,  at  last,  always  show  itself  to  be 
the  overpowering,  all-controlling,  all-absorbing  feeling  of  human 
nature  ;  so  theology  zvill  never  fail  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  intel- 
lectual, as  well  as  practical  interests  of  men — will  prove  itself  to 
be  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  intellect  as  well  as  in  the  heart. 
Instead  of  declining  it  will  increase  in  interest  in  proportion  to 
mental  development.  The  processes  of  theology  involve  the 
greatest  conceivable  topics,  embracing  such  subjects  as  the  di- 
vine nature  and  attributes  ;  God's  counsels,  works  and  provi- 
dence ;  the  religious  nature  of  man ;  his  primitive  innocence,  his 

(425) 


426     THE  RETURN  TO  THE  LUTHERAN  REFORMATION. 

fall  and  depravity,  his  redemption  and  regeneration,  his  character, 
origin  and  destiny — they  will  consequently  never  lose  their  hold 
upon  the  human  mind. 

§  2.  Hoiv  Theology  may  Promote  the  Interests  .of  Christianity 
amidst  its  Ever-varying  Circumstances  and  its  Constantly 
Changing  Dogmatic  Forms. 

While  Christianity  is  imperishable,  its  circumstances  change ; 
and  it  is  the  great  task  of  theology  to  exhibit  it  in  such  torms  as 
will  make  it  most  successful  in  overcoming  the  peculiar  opposi- 
tion, and  in  supplying  the  special  wants  of  the  times.  The 
present  day  requires  a  new  application  of  apologetical  labor  for 
the  defense  of  Christianity.  The  following  view  of  the  present 
condition  of  Christianity,  given  by  President  Killen,  of  the  Pres- 
byterian College,  Belfast,  which  has  just  left  the  press,  is  no 
doubt  correct :  "  The  age  in  which  we  live  presents  peculiar 
characteristics.  The  zeal  displayed  in  the  erection  and  multi- 
plication of  churches,  the  industry  employed  in  the  printing 
and  circulation  of  the  Scriptures,  the  increase  of  the  agencies 
for  the  spiritual  amelioration  of  society,  the  energy  and  self- 
denial  exhibited  by  not  a  few  ministers  and  missionaries,  the 
great  awakenings  which  have  taken  place  in  many  parts  of  the 
world,  and  the  immense  sums  expended  in  various  ways  for  the 
support  and  advancement  of  the  gospel,  all  attest  the  existence 
of  a  large  amount  of  earnest  Christianity;  and  yet,  seldom  has 
skepticism  been  so  openly  avowed,  and  so  diligently  propagated. 
It  is  well  known  that  it  has  leavened  whole  masses  of  the  work- 
ing population  in  America  and  Europe ;  and,  if  we  are  to 
believe  the  statements  of  some  of  its  distinguished  advocates,  it 
has  spread  to  an  alarming  extent  among  the  upper  ranks  in 
England  and  elsewhere.  The  avidity  with  which  the  produc- 
tions of  infidel  authors  are  perused,  and  the  manner  in  which 
they  are  pushed  into  notice  by  certain  popular  journalists,  who 
dare  not  distinctly  acknowledge  their  approval  of  them,  reveal  a 
very  unhealthy  state  of  the  public  mind.  An  essayist  of  wit 
and  flippancy,  who  possesses  a  smattering  of  general  knowledge 
which  he  can  make  readily  available  for  the  entertainment  of 
others,  and  who  never  loses  an  opportunity  of  turning  religion 
into  ridicule,  is  almost  sure  to  find  a  multitude  of  readers." 

In  this  state  of  the  Christian  warfare,  we  think  that  there  is  a 


THE   CERTAINTY    ENFORCED    BY    ITS    PRINCIPLE.  427 

necessity  of  betaking  ourselves  to  the  great  citadel,  the  principle 
of  the  Reformation.  There  the  Christian  idea  appears  in  a  light 
that  will  enable  us  to  have  the  greatest  intellectual  confidence 
in  its  truth,  and  to  exhibit  it  in  the  most  attractive  and 
convincing  forms  to  others.  As  in  the  days  of  the  wan- 
ing of  confidence  in  Christian  truth,  incurred  by  the  erro- 
neous methods  in  which  it  had  been  treated  and  presented, 
and  the  heterogeneous  materials  with  which  it  had  been  en- 
cumbered, in  the  pre-Reformation  era  ;  so  now,  in  these  days 
of  the  eclipse  of  faith,  of  growing  skepticism,  the  principle  of 
the  Reformation — the  principle  of  faith  in  the  simplicity  of  its 
truth,  and  it  alone — is  the  light  in  which  to  point  out  the  way  by 
which  confidence  in  Christian  truth  can  be  restored.  If,  instead 
of  meeting  the  present  objections,  which  are  the  result  of  devel- 
opments made  possible  through  the  impulse  given  to  the  human 
mind  in  the  Reformation,  by  merely  opposing  to  them  the  pres- 
ent forms  of  Christianity,  we  go  back  anew  to  the  principle  of 
that  great  source  of  the  modern  movements  of  the  human  mind — - 
and  now,  in  the  light  of  all  the  discoveries  and  experiences  of 
men,  of  all  the  consciousness  and  realization  of  personal  being 
and  its  relations,  which  have  been  made  in  the  secular  as  well  as 
the  ecclesiastical  mind — and  appropriate  afresh  that  central  prin- 
ciple of  religious  truth,  yea,  of  all  truth,  we  will  be  able  to  see 
for  ourselves  and  to  make  others  see,  how  Christian  truth  plants 
itself  in  the  inmost  thinking,  feeling,  and  willing  of  the  sincerely 
inquiring  mind,  and  how  it  authenticates  itself  as  coming  from 
God.  In  this  spirit  there  will  spring  up  the  confidence  that  all 
true  science  will  be  Christian  science  in  its  completed  results; 
that  the  highest  speculative  thought  will  be  found,  in  due  time, 
to  be  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  deepest  evangelical  experi- 
ence, or,  at  least,  not  inconsistent  with  it ;  and  that  every  scien- 
tific discovery  of  the  laws  of  nature  will,  at  last,  be  in  agreement 
with  the  Christian  idea  of  God  and  the  world,  of  religion  and 
man. 

So  it  led  Luther  and  his  coadjutors  in  the  beginning  of  the 
Reformation,  as  we  have  seen,  to  regard  the  gospel  as  self-evi- 
dencing, as  a  power  of  God  which  carries  its  own  evidence  with 
it  into  the  consciousness  of  the  earnest  seeker  for  the  certainty 
of  truth,  of  the  anxious  inquirer  after  the  assurance  of  salvation. 
It  led  them  to  place  the  certainty  of  Christian  truth,  thus  at- 


428     THE  RETURN  TO  THE  LUTHERAN  REFORMATION. 

tainable,  upon  a  level  with  the  necessary  truths  of  the  reason. 
It  will  give  us  full  confidence  in  the  certainty  of  Christian  truth 
for  ourselves,  and,  thus,  great  influence  over  others.  As  secular 
science  starts  in  experience,  so  the  principle  of  the  Reformation 
gives  us  a  starting  point  for  Christian  science  in  experience, 
and  thus  leads  us  to  look  upon  Christian  truth  as  having  such 
living  relations  to  the  wants  of  man,  and  coming  to  him  so 
really  by  contact  of  divine  realities  with  his  spiritual  suscepti- 
bilities, that  we  will  expect  the  result  in  the  end  to  be  as  neces- 
sarily Christian  faith,  as,  in  the  contact  of  natural  objects  with 
the  mind,  the  result  is  natural  faith  ;  that  as  the  latter  terminates 
in  the  belief  of  the  world  of  nature,  so  does  the  former,  in  faith 
in  the  reality  of  the  spiritual  world.  If  this  be  not  the  result, 
it  is  because  the  question  has  become,  through  moral  depravity, 
not  so  much  a  question  of  intellect  as  of  will.  The  experience 
of  sin  and  grace,  of  the  guilt  of  sinful  man  and  the  mercy  of 
the  holy  God,  prepares  the  way  for  the  recognition  of  the  cer- 
tainty of  Christian  truth  as  satisfactorily  as  does  natural  experi- 
ence for  that  of  natural  truth. 

The  same  thing  holds  in  regard  to  the  changes  of  dogmatic 
forms.  While  theology  is  imperishable,  it  is  progressive  ;  and 
its  forms  will  change.  And  in  the  reconstruction  which  seems 
to  be  now  setting  in  with  unprecedented  rapidity,  freedom  and 
independence,  we  are  convinced  that  men  will  be  successful  in 
their  efforts  just  in  proportion  to  the  completeness  of  their  re- 
turn to  primitive  Christianity,  as  it  found  its  true  expression  in 
the  principle  of  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century.  An- 
other clear-minded  British  author  has  lately  said:  "Neverthe- 
less, voices are   telling  us   that  we  are  in  the  midst  of  a 

transition  age,  so  loudly  that  the  dullest  cannot  choose  but  hear. 
It  needs  no  diviner  to  tell  us  that  tJiis  century  zvill  not  pass  with- 
out a  great  breaking  up  of  the  dogmatic  structures  that  have 
been  held  ever  since  the  Reformation  or  the  succeeding  age.  From 
every  side  at  once  a  simplifying  of  the  codes,  or  a  revision  of 
the  standards,  is  being  demanded.  I  will  not  ask  whether  this 
is  good  or  bad,  desirable  or  not.  It  is  enough  that  it  is  inevi- 
table. From  such  removal  of  old  landmarks,  two  opposite 
results  may  arise.  Either  it  may  make  faith  easier,  by  taking 
cumbrous  forms  out  of  the  way — it  may  make  the  approach  to 
Christ  and  God  more  simple  and   more  natural — may,  in  fact. 


HOW   THE    GOOD    RESULT    MAY    BE    OBTAINED.  429 

bmig  God  nearer  to  the  souls  of  men — or  it  may  remove  Him  to 
a  greater  distance,  and  make  life  more  completely  secidar.  Which 
shall  the  result  be  ?  This  depends,  for  each  one  of  us,  on  the 
way  we  use  the  new  state  of  things,  on  the  preparedness  or 
unpreparedness  of  heart  with  which  we  meet  it."  The  good  re- 
sult will  not  be  wrought  out  by  a  destructive  radicalism  which 
has  no  respect  for  the  past ;  nor  will  it  be  secured  by  the  blind 
conservatism  which  would  resist  all  the  improvements  of  the 
present.  The  proper  preparedness  will  not  consist  in  making 
the  certainty  of  truth  a  merely  intellectual  question,  apart  from 
personal  experience  of  its  saving  power ;  nor  in  a  rigid  adher- 
ence to  the  old  forms  of  doctrine,  however  unsuitable  to  the  new 
state  of  mental  development  in  Christendom.  But  the  pre- 
paredness for  the  good  result,  as  well  as  the  realization  of  it,  will 
be  in  proportion  to  our  return  to  that  immediateness  of  access 
to  God  in  Christ,  which  is  independent  of  scientific  conception 
and  of  dogmatic  formula,  which  is  involved  in  the  fact  of  justifi- 
cation by  faith  alone,  and  in  which  the  certainty  of  truth  and 
assurance  of  salvation  become  a  matter  of  experience.  In  this 
we  will  have  a  proper  basis  for  the  reconstruction  of  dogmatic 
forms,  and  a  true  starting-point  for  sound  theological  progress 
in  the  light  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  In  short,  the  true  prepa- 
ration for  the  new  state  of  things,  and  for  the  proper  use  of  it, 
will  be  found  in  the  revival  of  the  principle  of  the  Reformation  as 
it  existed  in  the  early  days  of  the  Reformation  ;  in  the  clear  ap- 
prehension of  the  ideas  involved  in  that  principle,  as  they  have 
since  been  developed ;  and  in  the  more  complete  appropriation 
of  the  Christian  idea  of  God  and  the  world,  of  religion  and  man, 
which  the  principle  of  the  Reformation  has  always  demanded, 
but  which  has  become  more  and  more  practicable  in  the  light  of 
centuries  of  psychological  investigation,  ethical  research,  and 
practical  experience.  Especially  should  this  appropriation  be 
now  made  anew  under  the  influence  of  that  deep  consciousness 
and  high  view  of  personality,  divine  and  human — a  necessary 
result  of  the  Reformation,  but  which  could  never  before  have 
been  so  fully  realized.  The  principle  of  the  Reformation  alone 
has  the  capacity  for  a  true  assimilation  of  truth,  and  a  perfect 
certainty  of  truth.  As  we  have  seen,  there  was  never  before 
the  Reformation  a  clear  apprehension  of  the  ground  of  inner 
certainty  of  truth,  and  of  personal  assurance  of  salvation ;  but 


430     THE  RETURN  TO  THE  LUTHERAN  REFORMATION. 

the  principle  of  the  the  Reformation  leads  to  this,  makes  truth 
the  personal  property  of  man,  connects  it  most  intimately  with 
his  self-consciousness.  It  confirms  the  harmony  of  the  first 
and  second  creations;  represents  the  highest  manifestation  of 
truth  to  be  in  their  agreement ;  overthrows  all  the  barriers 
which  had  been  thrown  in  the  way  of  the  apprehension  and 
appropriation  of  the  first  creation,  and  secures  anew  the  unity 
of  the  man  and  the  Christian ;  attaches  itself  to  the  conscience, 
to  the  moral  nature,  and  to  the  natural  knowledge  of  man ;  in 
short,  represents  Christianity  as  capable  of  leading  to  that  higher 
stage  of  self-consciousness,  in  which  the  mind  will  realize  its  re- 
storation to  the  unity  with  God  which  is  the  perfection  of  its  be- 
ing, the  realization  of  its  ideal,  the  fulfillment  of  its  destination. 

§  3.   The  Affinity  of  the  Principle  of  the  Rcforniatioji  ivith   the 
Spirit  and  Method  of  Science. 

We  should  not,  for  a  moment,  indulge  the  idea  that  either 
stagnation  in  the  progress  of  science  or  destruction  of  the  faith 
is  desirable  or  possible.  Neither  faith  nor  science  is  or  should 
be  destructible.  There  ought  to  be  no  conflict,  and  the  source 
of  the  conflict  which  exists  must,  like  all  the  conflicts  of  so- 
ciety, be  ascribed  to  our  sinful  depravity.  "  Neither  the  history 
of  nations,  nor  that  of  individuals,  is  characterized,"  says  Mar- 
tensen,  "  by  harmonious  progress  ;  on  the  contrary,  at  one  time 
we  find  a  false  tendency  to  movement  which  leads  to  the  fruit 
being  plucked  before  it  is  ripe,  and  the  goal  being  reached  for- 
ward to  ere  the  development  is  complete ;  at  another  time  spirit- 
less stagnation,  when  life  seems  to  have  been  brought  to  a  close 
just  where  it  ought  to  begin.  How  often,  too,  do  we  find  the 
progress  of  both  peoples  and  individuals  interrupted  by  their 
falling  back  into  old  and  long-discarded  errors.  The  conflicts 
constantly  taking  place  in  social  life  between  the  old  and  the 
new,  bear  witness  to  the  existence  of  this  disorganization,  which 
chokes  the  germs  of  the  future  and  denies  the  past,  instead  of 
seeking  to  secure  for  its  spirit  and  substance  a  continuous  and 
progressive  life." 

We  should  not  admit  the  idea  that  there  is  a  real  conflict  be- 
tween the  Christian  faith  and  true  science.  Certainly  this  is  not 
the  case  with  the  principle  of  the  Reformation  in  its  presenta- 
tion of  Christianity.     So  far  from  its  being  different,  in  its  spirit 


THE    MOTHER    OF   A    NEW    THEOLOGY   AND    PHILOSOPHY.       43 1 

and  mode,  from  true  science,  it  may  be  said  to  have  in  it  the  very 
soul  of  modern  science.  Indeed,  it  was  the  requirement  of  the 
certainty  of  truth  through  experience  which  was  involved  in  the 
principle  of  the  Reformation,  that  first  gave  the  impulse  to  that 
doctrine  of  the  necessity  of  experience  and  observation  which 
now  pervades  so  thoroughly  the  methods  of  science,  and  under 
the  influence  of  which  its  greatest  achievements  have  been  made. 
It  is  too  often  forgotten  by  the  enemies  of  Christianity,  and  even 
by  its  friends,  nay,  even  by  its  theologians,  that  if  modern  sci- 
ence declares  that  we  must  begin,  not  with  a  priori  conceptions 
of  nature,  but  with  experience,  the  Lutheran  Reformation  had 
said  this  long  before  respecting  supernatural  things;  that  it 
inculcated  an  inner  certainty  of  truth  through  personal  experi- 
ence as  the  starting  point  in  Christian  science.  The  Lutheran 
Reformation  was  the  mother  of  the  spirit  of  a  modern  philosophy 
as  well  as  of  a  new  theology — was  the  source  of  the  speculative 
apprehension  of  the  Christian  idea,  "  the  New  Wisdom,"  as  well 
as  of  the  deep  sense  of  Evangelical  experience,  of  experimental 
religion,  of  the  experience  of  the  power  of  the  gospel  unto  per- 
sonal salvation,  which  has  been  the  great  characteristic  of  the 
revivals  of  religion  so  frequent  and  general  since  that  day. 

We  should  be  mainly  concerned,  therefore,  to  free  Christianity 
from  all  heterogeneous  materials,  which  may  have  been  com- 
mingled with  it ;  and  to  exhibit  it  with  full  confidence  in  its 
self-evidencing  character — its  self-authenticating  power.  Thus 
exhibited,  it  will  always  find  faith  in  sincere  minds.  However 
great  may  be  the  appearance  of  estrangement  between  Christi- 
anity and  science,  it  must  be  only  apparent;  and  if  real,  it  can 
only  be  temporary.  The  completed  theology  and  the  final  phil- 
osophy will  be  in  perfect  harmony.  Genuine  Evangelical  ex- 
perience and  true  speculative  thought  are  really  in  agreement, 
and  will  sooner  or  later  be  seen  to  be  so.  Modern  philosophy, 
in  all  that  distinguishes  it  from  ancient  phUosophy,  is  the  child  of 
Christianity;  and  as  it  was,  in  its  incipiency,  produced  by  a 
Christian  impulse,  so  it  will  be  brought,  by  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation,  which  embodies  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  to  free 
itself  from  the  heathen  idea — the  elements  really  foreign  to  its 
true  nature — and,  in  its  culmination,  to  adopt  the  Christian  idea 
as  revealed  in  the  Bible,  and  the  Christian  salvation  as  it  is 
=ixperienced  by   its   earnest  professors,  as  the   only  satisfactory 


432      THE  RETURN  TO  THE  LUTHERAN  REFORMATION. 

solution  of  the  mysteries  of  existence — of  our  origin  and  des- 
tiny— the  only  hope  of  recovery  from  the  depravities,  and  the 
only  source  of  comfort  amid  the  miseries  of  life ;  the  only 
ground  of  hopeful  prospects  for  man  on  earth,  or  of  blessed  re- 
sults beyond  the  bounds  of  time  ;  the  only  sure  promise  of  an 
immortal  life,  the  only  certain  pledge  of  perfect  holiness  and 
final  happiness  for  him — obliged  as  he  is  to  contemplate  death 
and  the  grave. 

§  4.   Tlie  Results  of  the  Appropriation  anew  of  the  Principle  of 
the  Reformation  upon  Science  at  this  Day. 

In  proportion  to  the  completeness  with  which  theology  appro- 
priates and  exhibits  Christianity  in  the  spirit  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, will  it  gain  a  strong  hold  upon  the  human  mind.  It  is 
when  it  stands  upon  the  ground  of  the  experience  of  faith,  and 
keeps  in  close  connection  with  life,  that  Christian  science  will 
most  powerfully  influence  even  the  intellect  of  mankind.  It  will 
then  be  found,  more  and  more,  that  Christianity  is  adapted  to 
our  inner  capacities  and  wants,  to  the  necessities  of  man  as 
rational  as  well  as  sentient,  to  the  requirements  of  reason  as  well 
as  the  feelings  of  the  heart,  to  onx  primitive  nature  as  well  as  to 
our  sinful  state.  It  will  gradually  be  seen  that  the  second 
creation,  so  far  from  being  in  conflict,  even  in  its  miraculous 
character,  with  the  first  creation,  is  really  the  completion  of  it 
— is  that  in  view  of  which  it  was,  and  in  view  of  which  only 
it  could  be  properly  called  into  being,  and  in  which  it  is  to 
find  its  perfection  and  its  end.  It  will  be  found  that  Christianity 
attaches  itself  to  the  true  nature  of  man  ;  that  it  is  not  only  and 
mainly  an  external  authority,  or  an  outer  law  without  affinity  to 
the  innate  laws  of  our  being,  but  that  it  is  capable  of  being 
incorporated  and  designed  to  be  embodied  in  our  mental  life; 
that  it  is  not  only  the  law  that  binds  us  to  God,  and  the  universe 
as  God  would  have  it,  but  that  it  is,  at  the  same  time,  the 
power  which  secures  our  personal  perfection,  our  individual 
destination  to  holiness  and  happiness — in  the  blessedness  of 
love — in  the  harmony  of  the  world  of  ethical  being.  It  will  be 
seen  that  in  it  only  do  we  find  the  revelation  of  the  univei'sally 
valid  idea  of  being,  the  bond  of  unity  of  the  moral  universe, 
the  ground  and  end  of  our  existence,  and  especially  the  origina- 
tion and  consummation  of  the  ethical  system  into  which  sin  has 


ADAPTED    TO    THE    NATURE   AND    DESTINY    OF    MAN.  433 

come.  The  Christian  idea,  as  it  is  revealed  in  the  Scriptures 
and  enforced  by  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  only  needs  to 
be  fairly  exhibited,  and  it  will  find  a  lodgment  for  itself  in  the 
souls  of  men.  It  will  "  commend  itself  to  every  man's  con- 
science in  the  sight  of  God."  It  will  show  itself  to  be  the 
proper  guide  to  the  goal  of  our  existence,  to  be  the  fulfilling  of 
our  receptivity,  the  supplying  of  our  wants.  It  will  show  that 
our  being  in  its  most  fundamental  x€[2X\on  is  precisely  capacity 
for  faith,  and  that  the  last  and  full  form  of  faith,  its  only  appro- 
priate, satisfactory,  perfect  conception,  will  be  that  of  God — God 
in  Christ;  that  when  the  mind  is  taken  captive  in  obedience  to 
the  cross,  it  is  only  the  reason  checking  its  abnormal  tendencies, 
subduing  its  unnatural  pride,  curbing  its  erroneous  impulses, 
and  correcting  the  corruptions  of  a  sinful  heart  by  the  light  of 
the  gospel  and  the  power  of  grace,  as  by  the  light  of  truth  and 
the  power  of  right,  by  a  light  and  a  power  which  do  not  destroy, 
or  supersede,  or  suspend  its  freedom,  or  its  functions,  or  its 
activities,  but  become  one  with  it  in  all  the  proper  exercises  of 
its  being.  It  will  be  seen  that  in  becoming  Christian,  humanity 
only  throws  off  its  false  and  assumes  its  true  character,  only 
turns  from  wrong  to  right  relations  of  existence  ;  that  it  is 
reason  itself  which  is  conqueror  when  the  mind  submits  to 
Christianity ;  that  the  Christian  mind  is  the  reason  in  its  normal 
state — a  state  from  which  it  had  fallen  by  sin  and  to  which  only 
Christianity  could  restore  it — that  it  is  then,  and  then  only, 
upon  the  way  to  the  great  end  of  its  being ;  and  that  all  true 
culture  must  proceed  from,  and  lead  to,  Christ,  the  great  centre 
of  all  truth  as  He  is  the  centre  of  revealed  truth. 

§  5.   This  is  the  Great  Task  of  Theology  at  the  Present  Day  and  in 

This  Country . 

To  preserve  this  great  principle  from  heterogeneous  materials, 
and  to  trace  it  in  all  its  intellectual  as  well  as  its  spiritual  and 
cosmical  bearings,  wherever  it  already  exists,  and  to  introduce 
it  where  it  is  still  absent,  is  the  great  task  to  zvhich  theology  should 
address  itself  in  this  age  and  in  this  country.  Especially  should 
the  theology  of  the  General  Synod  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Church  in  the  United  States,  share  largely  in  this  work.  It  is, 
indeed,  not  the  work  of  a  sect,  or  of  a  Church,  but  the  work 
of  Christian  men  who  have  been  so  situated  and  trained  in  their 


434     THE  RETURN  TO  THE  LUTHERAN  REFORMATION. 

ecclesiastical  history  and  relations,  as  to  have  their  hearts  best 
qualified,  and  their  minds  most  free  for  untrammeled  effort; 
and  among  no  other  body  of  Christians  have  we  a  right  to  ex- 
pect so  large  a  proportion  of  such  men — a  work  for  all  evangel- 
ical Christians,  but  especially  for  evangelical  Lutherans  in  this 
age  and  in  this  country. 

As  all  the  centuries  of  the  pre-Reformation  life,  both  ecclesi- 
astical and  sectarian — as  all  the  results  of  theology,  both  scho- 
lastic and  mystical — were  a  preparation,  either  negatively  or 
positively,  of  the  way  for  the  original  annunciation  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  Reformation,  that  justifying  faith  is  the  central  fact 
of  the  Christian  life  and  the  regulative  principle  for  the  appli- 
cation of  all  truth,  and  that  it  is  only  by  the  Sacred  Scriptures 
that  the  objective  presuppositions  and  realities  of  faith  can  be 
verified ;  so  all  the  post-Reformation  structures  of  doctrine  and 
ecclesiastical  developments — Lutheranism,  Zwinglianism,  Calvin- 
ism, Arminianism,  doctrinally ;  and  Episcopacy,  Presbyterian- 
ism,  and  Congregationalism,  ecclesiastically — ought  now  to 
be  regarded  as  so  many  preparations,  made  through  centuries 
of  experience  and  observation,  for  going  back — not  empty- 
handed,  but  richly  laden  with  the  precious  results  which  have 
been  gathered,  and  effectually  warned  by  the  bitter  fruits  of  the 
full  development  of  the  heathen  idea,  and  the  comparative  neglect 
of  the  true  idea  of  God — and  taking  up  anew,  and  in  the  light 
and  power  of  all  this  experience,  making  a  more  perfect  appro- 
priation of  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  and  a  more  com- 
plete apprehension  of  the  Christian  idea — necessarily  springing 
from  it  with  peculiar  clearness  and  intensity — in  all  its  bearings 
upon  the  doctrines  and  forms  of  the  Church,  and  upon  the  sev- 
eral spheres  and  interests  of  life  as  they  now  exist. 


CHAPTER     XII. 

THE  PRACTICABILITY  OF  MEETING  THIS  WANT,  AND  OF  REALIZING 
THIS  PROSPECT  FOR  AN  EVANGELICAL  LUTHERAN  THEOLOGY  AT 
THE  PRESENT    DAY. 

§  I.  TJie  Present  State  of  Skeptical  Thojight  affords  an  Advantn- 
geo?is  'Position  and  a  Great  Soiirce  of  Encouragement  to 
Theology  in  General. 

Theology  has  now,  by  the  acknowledgment  of  its  opponents, 
the  right  to  claim  for  Christianity  the  exclusive  possession  of 
beliefs  which  were  formerly  claimed  by  infidelity  to  be  estab- 
lished by  reason  independently  of  revelation.  In  a  former  age 
skepticism  spoke  of  a  large  portion  of  spiritual  truth  as  inde- 
pendent of  the  influence  of  Christianity.  Formerly  it  confidently 
spoke  of  "  the  universal  religion,"  to  which  all  the  various  relig- 
ions that  have  existed — and  Christianity  among  the  rest — could 
be  reduced,  and  which  is  to  be  regarded  as  sufficient  for  all  man- 
kind. "  This  universal  system  consists  of  five  articles  :  i.  That 
there  is  one  supreme  God.  2.  That  He  is  to  be  worshiped.  3. 
That  piety  and  virtue  are  the  principal  parts  of  His  worship.  4. 
That  man  should  repent  of  sin,  and  that  if  he  does  so  God  will 
pardon  it.  5.  That  there  are  rewards  for  the  good,  and  punish- 
ments for  the  evil,  partly  in  this  life,  and  partly  in  a  future  state." 
These  articles,  it  supposed,  were  sentiments  inscribed  by  the 
finger  of  God  in  the  creation  of  man  upon  the  minds  of  all  men. 
Hitherto  it  spoke  eloquently  of  a  personal  God,  of  the  freedom 
and  responsibility,  the  spiritual  dignity  and  immortal  destiny  of 
man ;  of  the  distinctions  between  virtue  and  vice,  of  the  elevat- 
ing and  purifying  influence  of  a  rational  belief  in  God  as  the 
Creator,  Redeemer,  Governor  and  final  Judge  of  the  world ;  of 
the  satisfaction  and  consolation,  amid  the  depravities  and  suffer- 
ings of  earth,  derived  from  the  hope  of  a  blessed  immortality. 
And  it  made  this  position,  which  it  supposed  it  could  occupy 
between  Christianity  and  Atheism,  its  strong  point  in  rejecting 
all  special  revelation. 

(435) 


436  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING   THIS    WANT. 

But  now  infidelity  holds  that  these  beliefs  are  all  of  them  su- 
perstitious notions,  that  they  are  not  discoveries  of  reason,  but 
the  result  of  Christianity  as  the  great  source  of  superstitious  be- 
liefs. It  now  acknowledges  that  there  are  but  two  world-views, 
but  two  ideas  of  the  universe  possible  to  human  conception,  on 
the  last  and  most  complete  scientific  analysis;  the  one,  the 
Christian  idea,  the  other,  the  heathen  conception  of  God  and  the 
world ;  the  one  acknowledging  all  these  beliefs  respecting  the 
spiritual  nature  of  man  on  earth  and  all  these  hopes  for  him  in 
heaven,  the  other  excluding  them  all.  In  its  complete  scientific 
development — the  culmination  to  which  it  has  now  come — it 
declares  that  there  is  no  personal  God  and  no  personal  immortal- 
ity ;  that  men  are  not  only  in  consequence  of  their  sinful  alien- 
ation— as  even  the  Christian  might  say — but  by  the  very  nature 
and  constitution  of  their  being,  "without  God  and  without  hope 
in  the  world."  There  seem,  indeed,  to  be  only  two  grand 
sources  of  human  thought  on  this  subject.  "  In  regard  to  the 
efforts  made  by  philosophy,"  says  Martensen,  "  to  solve  the 
problem  of  the  rise  and  origin  of  things,  we  remark  that  it  is  in 
all  cases  limited  to  the  choice  between  the  type  of  mythology 
and  that  of  revelation.  For  although  we  do  not  overlook  the 
distinction  between  intuition  and  conception,  there  is  no  denying 
the  fact,  that  all  that  is  essential  in  the  knowledge  possessed  by 
humanity,  and  the  fundamental  features  of  its  consciousness  of 
these  things,  are  embodied  either  in  myths  or  in  revelation. 
Nothing  more  can  be  positively  known  concerning  these  things 
than  is  furnished  by  mythology  and  revelation,  by  the  mytho- 
logical representations  of  chaos  and  the  Mosaic  idea  of  the  cre- 
ative Word,  the  profounder  signification  of  which  was  first 
opened  by  John  in  the  prologue  to  his  gospel.  The  one  or 
other  of  these  types  is  necessarily  followed  by  every  logically 
self-consistent  system  of  philosophy.  The  most  recent  philo- 
sophical systems  have  received  their  fructifying  element  princi- 
pally from  the  mythological  type,  especially  from  the  Greek  view 
of  the  world,  and  have  endeavored  to  explain  the  origin  of 
things  in  a  purely  cosmogonic  way,  to  the  exclusion  of  creation 
proper."  All  the  truths  of  what  is  usually  called  natural  re- 
ligion, are  now  rejected  by  the  prevalent  form  of  infidelity  as 
unworthy  of  belief  They  may  now  be  claimed — by  the  con- 
cession  of  the  enemy — as   confirmed,  fixed  in  the  minds  and 


CONCESSION    FATAL   TO    THE    POWER    OF    INFIDELITY.        437 

belief  of  men,  if  not  even  originally  revealed,  by  Christianity. 
Though  they  are,  no  doubt,  in  some  measure  the  result  of  the 
general  revelation  of  Spirit  to  spirit,  of  God  to  men,  they  have 
only  been  clearly  apprehended  and  enforced  within  the  range  of 
the  sacred  history — the  special  revelation.  They  may  now  be 
safely  ascribed  to  revelation,  general  or  special,  or  both ;  for  the 
enemy  declares  that  his  idea — the  only  other  possible — entirely 
shuts  them  out  of  the  pale  of  scientific  truth  and  discovery. 
Formerly  he  contended  that  reason  discovered  and  demonstrated 
these  beliefs  without  the  aid  of  revelation ;  now  he  declares  that 
science  against  Christianity  shows  them  to  be  impossible. 

By  admitting  that  these  beliefs  are  the  result  of  Christianity 
independently  of  reason,  the  enemy  has  made  a  concession 
which  theology  can  make  of  great  advantage  in  the  enforcement 
of  revealed  truth.  Indeed,  the  clear-minded  opponents  of 
Christianity  of  the  present  day,  explicitly — often  in  so  many 
words — acknowledge  that  if  these  beliefs  were  well-founded, 
that  if  they  believed  them — namely,  those  of  a  personal  God,  of 
creation  in  the  strict  sense,  of  a  spiritual  world,  of  personal  free- 
dom and  responsibility — that  if  they  regarded  sin  as  sin,  as  the 
result  of  the  free  action  of  man,  as  guilt — they  could  not  only 
not  object  to  the  possibility,  but  would  have  to  hold  to  the 
necessity,  of  special  revelation.  They  admit  that  divine  revela- 
tion would  have  to  be  expected ;  that  the  very  nature  of  man 
and  his  condition  as  a  moral  and  sinful  creature  would  make  it 
necessary  that  the  Creator  of  the  moral  world — in  the  case  of 
sin  having  come  into  it — should  be  the  originator  of  the  remedy  ; 
that  only  its  Creator  could  restore  it,  if  ever  it  were  restored  ; 
that  the  wants  of  man  would  require,  expect,  and  predict  a  divine 
revelation.  They  recognize  it  as  a  logical  consequence,  that  if 
man  be  such  a  being — creature,  immortal,  sinful — he  cannot  real- 
ize his  true  ideal  nor  attain  his  manifest  destination  without 
divine  revelation  ;  that  these  circumstances  would  require  it  as 
lungs  do  air,  as  eyes  do  light,  as  stomachs  do  food,  and  as  the 
diseased  body  does  medicine.  Reason  would  so  clearly  demand 
revelation  that  the  condition  of  man  without  it  would  have  to 
be  regarded  irrational,  abnormal. 

They  are  right  in  recognizing  the  fact  that  the  rejection  of 
Christianity,  is  inseparable  from  the  denial  of  man's  responsibil- 
ity and    destiny  as   a  moral,  spiritual,  personal   being.     If  the 


438  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING   THIS    WANT. 

moral  world  be  a  reality,  its  present  condition  is  hopeless  with- 
out special  divine  interposition.  We  need  a  revelation  not  only 
that  we  may  have,  in  the  behest  of  the  infinite  will,  a  universally 
valid  law  of  moral  action,  and  faith  in  morality  as  eternally  real- 
ized in  the  divine  existence,  but  for  all  solid  ground  of  hope  for 
restoration  of  the  moral  world  when  sin  has  come  into  it.  We 
cannot  do  better  than  to  quote  from  a  distinguished  psychologist 
on  this  point :  "  But  we  now  turn  to  a  fact  which  every  mind 
may  recognize,  viz.,  an  end  in  moral  character,  or  worthiness  in 
ethical  personality,  which  wholly  subordinates  all  other  ends  of 
the  sentient  or  human  being."  "As  'the  life  is  more  than 
meat,'  so  is  the  integrity  of  moral  character  more  than  appetite 
or  art  or  science.  If  any  want  whatever,  or  any  happiness  in 
any  degree  or  duration,  or  any  interest  in  beauty  or  truth,  induce 
the  will  into  its  service  as  end,  so  that  it  shall  cease  to  hold  the 
highest  worthiness  of  the  ethical  personality  as  supreme  end, 
then  is  the  moral  character  degraded  and  debased  ;  the  spiritual 
birthright  is  sold  for  "  a  mess  of  pottage,"  and  the  soul  is  forced 
to  blush  in  conscious  shame,  in  the  inner  witnessing  of  its  own 
vileness.  *  The  spirit  of  a  man  will  sustain  his  infirmity,  but  a 
wounded  spirit,  who  can  bear?'"  "So,  if  I  am  affected  with 
remorse,  I  at  once  distinguish  it  from  regret  for  some  imprudence 
or  unkindness,  and  feel  that  it  bespeaks  something  more  than 
happiness  lost,  even  ethical  dignity  debased  and  worthiness  of 
moral  character  degraded.  I  may  experience  shame  in  my  sen- 
tient being,  if  some  conditions  in  nature  have  made  me  to  appear 
ludicrous — or  when,  through  mere  imprudence,  I  have  exposed 
myself  to  ridicule — but  I  well  know  the  difference  between  all 
such  shame  and  that  ethical  debasement  which  blushes  even 
before  its  own  consciousness  that  it  has  been  guilty  of  subjecting 
the  spirit  to  the  flesh."  "  But  that  which  ought  to  be,  zvill  not  be, 
when  one  person  has  violated  a  right  and  introduced  sin  into 
the  ethical  system.  This  one  violation  reaches  through  and 
breaks  in  upon  the  rights  and  the  complacency  of  the  whole." 
"  And  when  such  offending  member  introduces  his  disturbing 
and  colliding  action,  it  is  the  equitable  claim  of  the  whole  that 
the  delinquent  and  all  his  deranging  action  be  at  once  excluded. 
But  it  02/ght  not  to  be  that  his  exclusion  be  merely  topical  dis- 
placement, as  the  removal  from  a  material  machine  of  some  part 
broken  or  become  rotten.     Remorse  and  shame  is  the  sinner's 


HELPLESSNESS  OF   THE    ETHICAL   SYSTEM    IN    SIN.  439 

due,  and  the  moral  disapprobation  of  all  the  holy,  perpetually 
made  manifest  toward  him,  is  the  righteous  demerit  of  the 
guilty."  "  In  such  a  state  of  facts,  all  comprehension  of  an 
ethical  system  were  impossible.  That  has  come  in  which  should 
not  have  originated,  and  that  consummation  which  should  be,  is 
unattainable.  The  fact  as  it  is,  has  no  satisfactory  origin  or 
end,  as  ethical  system.  It  stands  itself,  in  its  own  working, 
abhorrent  to  the  moral  reason  and  conscience  which  it  embodies; 
and  is  an  ethical  blot,  eternal  and  irremediable  in  its  own  help- 
lessness of  all  self-cleansing.  And  here  the  question  is,  how 
comprehend  the  ethical  system  in  humanity  as  we  find  it, 
marred,  perverted,  and  incorrigible  from  its  own  action  ?  We 
can  comprehend  an  ethical  system  as  it  should  be  very  readily  ; 
since  the  existence  of  the  human  society  would  itself  originate 
the  rights  and  imperatives,  and  the  fulfillment  of  the  law  uni- 
versal would  be  its  consummation ;  but  it  is  a  very  different  fact 
of  comprehension  when  the  ethical  system  is  already  perverted, 
and  in  itself  helpless  and  hopeless  of  all  restoration  in  its  own 
movement.  How  such  perverted  ethical  system  originated  ? 
How  be  consummated?  is  now  the  problem."  "  It  might  be 
easy  to  show  here,  that  the  provisions  of  the  gospel  scheme  of 
Redemption  are  precisely  adapted  to  the  interests  of  reason  in 
effecting  such  an  ethical  comprehension,  and  that  the  divine 
interpositions  have  been  wholly  regulated  by  the  behests  of 
God's  own  worthiness  and  dignity.  It  behooved  Him  so  to 
interfere  and  no  otherwise  in  the  permission,  the  overwhelming 
and  restraining,  the  expiation,  pardoning,  and  punishing  of  sin. 
On  the  Christian  ground  of  a  moral  government,  its  comprehen- 
sion is  in  complete  conformity  with  every  fact  of  man's  ethical 
responsibility  and  God's  righteous  sovereignty.  Man  in  his 
freedom  sJwiild  have  been  no  otherwise  restrained;  God  in  His 
holiness  should  no  otherwise  have  interposed." 

§  2.   Theology  should  avail  itself  of  this  State  of  Things. 

The  full  and  consistent  development  of  infidelity  into  the 
denial  even  of  natural  religion  is  a  great  advantage  to  Christi- 
anity. First  because  the  great  mass  of  men,  as  we  have  seen, 
can  never  agree  with  the  pantheistic,  naturalistic  negations  of 
the  facts  which  are  evincive  of  the  existence  of  a  spiritual 
world  and  of  the  moral  nature  and  responsibility  of  man.    They 


440  THE    PRACTICABILITY   OF    MEETING    THIS    WANT. 

are  and  always  will  be  theistic  on  these  points ;  they  do  and 
always  will  receive  the  doctrine  of  the  personality  of  God  and 
of  man  as  truths.  Just  in  proportion  then  to  the  increased 
energy  with  which  infidelity  discards  them  and  declares  them  to 
be  the  product  of  Christianity,  will  be  the  augmented  strength 
of  the  hold  of  the  latter  upon  the  faith  of  all  who  are  not  en- 
tirely lost  to  all  susceptibility  for  salvation;  that  is,  of  all  who 
really  believe  in  the  facts  of  moral  being,  and  of  all  who,  though 
they  may  have  doubts  respecting  them,  yet  do  not  wholly  dis- 
card them.  And,  secondly,  because  the  denial  of  these  facts  is 
evidence  of  a  perverted  intellect  or  a  corrupt  heart.  If  these 
facts  remain  in  a  man's  consciousness  notwithstanding  the  nega- 
tions of  his  science,  he  is  very  unscientific  in  ignoring  them, 
very  unphilosophic  in  denying  them  or  trying  to  explain  them 
away,  simply  because  they  cannot  be  comprehended  in  the  mere 
logical  understanding  or  in  any  science  of  mere  nature.  And 
if  he  do  not  realize  them  in  his  consciousness,  it  must  be  be- 
cause of  the  moral  darkness  that  is  in  him.  In  regard  to  such 
men  the  apostle  would  declare :  "  If  our  gospel  be  hid,  it  is  hid 
to  them  that  are  lost ;  in  whom  the  God  of  this  world  hath 
blinded  the  minds  of  them  that  believe  not,  lest  the  light  of  the 
glorious  gospel  of  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God,  should 
shine  unto  them."  The  facts  are  so  universally  recognized,  that 
whether  the  result  of  reason  or  Christianity,  they  cannot  be 
declared  delusive  on  mere  naturalistic  grounds.  They  lie  be- 
yond the  sphere  of  any  mere  science  of  nature  ;  and  all  the 
philosophical  attempts  to  explain  them  away  will  alwa}-s  prove 
unsatisfactory.  The  mere  sensational  philosophy  which  has  its 
culmination  in  the  so-called  positive  philosophy — the  atheistic 
philosophy  which  denies  the  reality  of  all  spiritual  being,  which 
teaches  that  the  phenomenal,  the  sensuous,  is  the  only  reality ; 
which  either  denies  the  absolute  or  declares  that  it  is  unknow- 
able ;  and  which  declares  that  we  cannot  have  any  knowledge 
of  God  or  spirit, — does  not  deserve  the  nmiic  of  philosophy.  It 
may  be  true  science  of  the  merely  sensuous,  the  mere  phenom- 
enal world ;  but  as  it  does  not  transcend  that,  it  is  absurd  in 
denying  the  reality  of  all  beyond.  And  all  the  forms  of  pan- 
theism, as  we  have  seen,  fail  to  give  any  satisfactory  explanation 
or  comprehension  of  the  spiritual  phenomena — the  moral  facts 
of  life. 


PRESENT   VANTAGE-GROUND    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  44 1 

Theology  should,  therefore,  state  anew  these  truths  in  their 
relation  to  the  whole  scheme  of  revealed  truth.  All  the  psych- 
ological discoveries  of  modern  times,  so  important  to  man  as 
a  moral  and  spiritual  being — all  the  observations  resulting  from 
investigations  of  the  history  of  moral  life  and  action,  so  numer- 
ous and  so  rich — can  now,  as  they  never  could  before,  be  appro- 
priated by  the  theologian  for  the  purpose  of  deeper  and  truer 
conceptions  of  divine  things — of  God  and  of  spirit  generally, 
and  of  the  relations  of  the  soul  to  the  realities  of  the  unseen 
world.  And  while  the  negations  of  mere  natural  science  and 
the  pretensions  of  Pantheistic  philosophy  will  never  be  much  re- 
garded by  the  sincere  among  the  people  of  plain  common  sense  ; 
with  the  great  mijltitude  who  all,  whether  learned  or  unlearned, 
receive  the  truths  of  natural  religion  in  these  days,  the  theolo- 
gian has  the  opportunity  to  show  more  and  more  fully — now 
that  the  beliefs  in  natural  religion  are  conceded  to  Christianity 
— that  Christianity  is  consistent  with  all  moral  truth,  and  akin  to 
all  the  spiritual  powers  of  the  universe ;  that  it  assumes  for  our 
belief  "  no  other  conditions  than  those  by  which  the  creation  it- 
self exists  ;"  that  revelation  is  but  the  perfecting  of  what  was 
contemplated  and  begun  in  creation  ;  that  it  is  only  from  the 
standpoint  of  Christianity,  as  the  centre  of  truth,  that  we  get  a 
comprehensive  view  of  the  moral  world,  and  an  enlarged  and 
complete  idea  of  the  reason,  and  a  glorious  and  satisfactory 
prospect  of  the  destiny  of  its  existence ;  that  it  is  impossible  to 
reject  Christianity  without  rejecting  these  truths  of  natural  re- 
ligion. Thus  with  consistent  thinkers,  outside  of  the  circle  of 
pure  naturalisui,  the  question  of  its  acceptance  can  be  shown  to 
have  become  a  question  not  so  much  of  the  state  of  the  intel- 
lect as  of  the  condition  of  the  will.  So  that  the  moral  develop- 
ment of  the  world  has,  at  last,  come  to  a  point  when  the 
Saviour's  words  cannot  but  be  realized  in  all  their  truth  and 
force  :  "  If  any  man  will  do  the  will  of  My  Father  in  heaven,  he 
shall  know  of  this  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God." 

§  3.   Theology  should  now  Appropriate  and  Christianize  the  Results 
of  Human  Thought  and  Experience. 

Theology  should  now  return  to  the  principle  of  the  Reforma- 
tion laden  with  all  the  benefits  of  the  development  of  human 
thought  and  the  manifestation  of  human  wants  and  possibilities, 


442  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF   MEETING    THIS    WANT. 

which  have  characterized  the  modern  researches  in  psycholog- 
ical and  ethical  science.  Skepticism  had  appropriated  and  hu- 
manized what  was  really  Christian;  now  theology  has  the 
opportunity  to  appropriate  and  Christianize  what  is  human — 
what  the  human  intellect  and  conscience  have  contributed  toward 
the  enlargement  and  enrichment  of  the  truths  derived  originally 
from  revelation.  The  fact  that  infidelity  has  so  completely 
abandoned  these  beliefs  of  natural  religion,  shows  how  close  is 
their  affinity  with  Christianity ;  and  how  it  is  that  Christ  has, 
indeed,  "  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light  by  the  gospel." 
Modern  skepticism  is  only  the  scientific  development  of  the  an- 
cient heathen  world-view.  And  that  heathenism,  even  in  its 
highest  forms  and  its  best  representatives,  had  no  conception  of 
creation  in  the  strict  sense ;  and  consequently  it  could  have  no 
hope  of  a  personal  immortality.  A  Plato's  idea  of  the  future  exist- 
ence of  the  soul  involved  that  of  its  pre-existence  from  eternity, 
and  consequently  not,  in  the  strict  sense,  a  personal  existence  in 
the  past  or  in  the  future  life.  And  an  Aristotle  has  neither  the 
full  idea  of  an  absolute  personality,  nor  the  clear  conception  of 
an  actual  creation ;  and  consequently  he  has  very  dubious  views 
respecting  the  future  destiny  of  man.  These  truths  are  not  dis- 
covered by  unaided  reason,  nor  are  they  developed  from  the  more 
natural  consciousness,  but  from  the  consciousness  determined 
partly  by  general  revelation,  and  mainly  as  it  is  determined  by 
special  revelation.  "We  hear,  indeed,"  says  Martensen,  "the  sa- 
cred voice  of  God  speaking  through  the  voices  of  profane  history; 
and  in  the  deeds  of  men,  in  secular  events,  we  discern  also  the 
deeds  of  God  ;  but  in  the  tumult  of  the  world's  history  our  ear 
confounds  God's  voice  with  the  voices  of  men,  and  the  holy, 
providential  design  now  and  then  disclosed  in  the  fate  of  men, 
is  concealed  again  from  our  sight  amidst  the  restless  stream  of 
events.  If  we  may  in  truth  speak  of  a  sacred,  a  divine  revela- 
tion, then  there  must  be  a  history  within  history,  there  must  be 
within  profane  history  a  sacred  liistory,  in  which  God  reveals 
Himself  as  God;  a  history  in  which  is  revealed  the  sacred  de- 
sign of  the  world  as  such,  in  which  the  Word  of  God  so  encases 
itself  in  the  word  of  man  that  the  latter  becomes  the  pure  organ 
for  the  former,  and  in  which  the  acts  of  God  are  so  involved  in 
the  acts  of  men  that  the  latter  become  a  perfectly  transparent 
medium   through  which   the  former  may  be  seen."     But  when 


CHRISTIANITY   THE   CENTRE    OF   ALL   TRUTH.  443 

the  mind  once  has  these  truths  of  what  is  usually  called  natural 
religion,  though  they  are  the  result  of  divine  revelation,  then  it  has 
intuitions  of  moral  responsibility  and  moral  government,  of  spir- 
itual worthiness  and  immortal  destiny,  which  go  far  to  prepare 
it  to  believe  and  confess  Christianity — to  recognize  the  reasona- 
bleness of  its  revelations  and  the  justice  of  the  claims  of  the 
scheme  of  redemption  which  it  enforces  upon  a  sinful  world. 
We  might  not  be  able  to  discover  the  ethical  personality  in  man  ; 
but  when  we  are  enabled  to  cognize  it,  then  that  high  priest  of 
human  nature,  Shakspeare,  can  regard  us  all  as  knowing, 
by  rational  insight,  an  ethical  worthiness  which  must  be 
respected,  a  spiritual  integrity  which  must  be  maintained,  a 
categorical  imperative  in  the  dictates  of  conscience  which 
must  be  obeyed.  And  all  humanity  responds  to  it,  as  a 
universal  maxim,  when  he  makes  one  of  his  imaginary  person- 
ages say;  "I  may  do  all  that  doth  become  a  man;  who  does 
more  is  none."  So,  though  men  may  not  have  been  able  with- 
out revelation  to  have  discovered  the  divine  personality,  the 
ethical  world,  the  spiritual  kingdom,  yet  when  they  once  do  ap- 
prehend them,  they  have — inseparable  from  the  susceptibility  to 
divine  revelation,  under  the  divine  impressions — in  their  experi- 
ence of  the  truths  communicated,  intuitions  of  right,  insights 
of  the  reason  respecting  divine  excellence,  infinite  worthiness, 
which  will  prepare  them  to  agree  with  Christianity  that  sin 
merits  infinite  disapprobation  and  condign  punishment  at  the 
hands  of  God ;  and  that  if  it  be  pardoned  an  expiation  must  be 
made  infinitely  satisfactory  to  justice,  an  atonement  which  God 
only  can  effect — a  God-man  only  can  render.  They  are  pre- 
pared to  say:  God  may  do  all  that  doth  become  God ;  if  He  did 
more,  if  He  saved  a  sinful  world  without  atonement,  He 
would  not  be,  or,  at  least,  would  not  be  revealed  as  the  personal 
Creator  of  the  world,  the  originator  and  consummator  of  the 
ethical  system  which  it  involves.  They  are  prepared  with  ado- 
ration as  well  as  gratitude  to  believe  in  Him  "who  though  He 
knew  no  sin,  was  made  sin — a  sin-offering — for  us" — in  Him 
whom  "  God  hath  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  for  sin  through 
faith  in  His  blood!'  They  are  prepared  heartily  to  respond 
to  the  inspired  declaration:  "It  became  Him,  for  whom 
are  all  things,  and  by  whom  are  all  things,  in  bringing  many 
sons  unto  glory,  to  make  the  captain  of  their  salvation  perfect 


444  THE    PRACTICABILITY   OF    MEETING   THIS   WANT. 

through  sufferings,"  and  to  determine  "that  He  by  the  grace  of 
God  should  taste  death  for  every  man."  If  the  beHefs  in  natural 
religion  have  often  not  actually  been  a  preparation  for  the  recep- 
tion of  Christianity,  but  have,  on  the  other  hand,  too  often  been 
destroyed  in  the  onward  march  of  a  mere  logical  understanding 
and  displaced  by  the  negations  of  pure  naturalism,  it  is  because 
theology  has  too  much  neglected  the  great  principle  of  the  Ref- 
ormation, and,  consequently,  failed  to  draw  its  forces  from  the 
great  centre  of  all  Christian  power.  And  if  it  would  avail  itself 
of  these  truths  of  natural  religion,  it  must  remember  that  if  the 
sole  problem  of  a  created  world  be  reconciliation  between  Crea- 
torship  and  creatureship,  the  main  problem  of  a  sinful  world  is 
reconciliation  between  the  holy  God  and  the  sinful  world ;  that 
if  religion  be  the  great  problem  of  the  world,  the  funda- 
mental problem  of  religion  in  a  sinful  world  is  salvation  from 
sin — personal  assurance  of  the  sinner's  acceptance  with  the  Holy 
God  through  Jesus  Christ.  Have  we  not  evidence  that  when 
this  is  made  the  centre  of  all  theological  thought,  the  motive  of 
all  preaching  and  Christian  activity,  Christianity  becomes  almost 
irresistible  to  those  who  believe  in  the  truths  of  the  so-called 
natural  religion  ?  Was  not  this  the  case  in  the  days  of  Luther, 
when  positive  religion  had  become  a  mere  form,  and  men  were 
just  in  that  mental  state  when  they  would  rapidly  have  followed 
the  naturalism  which  had  then  begun  to  prevail,  if  the  preaching 
of  the  cross  in  the  emphatic  manner  of  the  principle  of  the  Ref- 
ormation had  not  turned  religious  beliefs  tozvard  the  necessity  of 
personal  assurance  of  salvation  through  faith  in  Christ  alone  ? 
Is  not  this  the  reason  that  infidelity  is  always  so  little  checked 
by  Romanism?  Was  it  not  this  characteristic  of  the  preaching 
of  Wesley  and  Whitefield  which  made  the  natural  religion  of  the 
day  cease  to  plead  its  independence,  and  become  a  preparation  for 
the  reception  of  Christianity  instead  of  naturalism  ?  The  writer 
is  not  too  young  to  have  had  some  personal  observation  of  a  simi- 
lar effect  upon  the  rationalism,  then  so  widely  prevalent  in  our 
Church,  by  the  same  characteristic  in  the  preaching  of  the  men 
who  were  most  instrumental  in  the  forming  and  sustaining  of 
the  General  Synod!  How  notoriously  is  this  the  wonderful 
power  of  the  preaching  of  such  men  as  Moody  in  our  day ! 
This  appropriation,  this  Christianization  of  these  rational  beliefs, 
is  practicable;  but  it  can  be  made  so  only  by  making  justifica- 


THEOLOGY    MAY    NOW    CHRISTIANIZE   THE    HUMAN.  445 

tion  by  faith  the  central  and  determining  principle  in  our  theol- 
ogy ;  not  by  receiving  it  merely  intellectually,  but  by  making  it 
a  matter  of  which  we  can  speak  as  did  Paul — "  I  know  whom  I 
have  believed" — a  matter  of  inner,  conscious  experience,  and 
insisting  upon  it  as  such.  It  is,  indeed,  true  that  publicans  and 
harlots  are  more  likely  to  be  converted  to  Christianity  than  self- 
righteous  persons.  But  self-righteousness  and  natural  religion 
are  not  identical ;  and  the  great  mass  of  the  converts,  as  we  all 
know,  comes  from  persons  who  have  not  thrown  off  all  religious 
belief  But  it  shows  that  an  evangelical  theology  should  always 
and  everywhere,  and  in  the  strict  sense,  "  know  nothing  save 
Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified." 

§  4.  ///  a  Similar  Manner  can  the  Defective  Conclusions  and  even 
Erroneous  Tendencies  of  the  Past  become  the  Source  of  Benefit 
to   Theology. 

We  have  seen  how  all  the  proofs  for  the  being  of  God  upon 
which  the  rationalists,  and  even  the  supernaturalists,  formerly  so 
much  relied,  fall  short  of  demonstrative  evidence  of  the  valid 
being  of  a  personal,  conscious  God  and  Creator  of  the  world. 
But  we  have,  at  the  same  time,  seen  how  this  truth,  produced 
as  it  is  by  revelation,  general  or  special,  is  interpreted  and  con- 
firmed by  these  arguments,  in  that  they  show  that  the  mind 
naturally  has  the  capacity  for  the  idea  and  can  develop  it ;  and 
that  the  belief  in  such  a  being  is  not  inconsistent  with  reason. 
So  in  regard  to  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  rational,  thinking 
mind — from  the  capacity  of  man  for  a  development  never  realized 
in  this  life,  and  from  the  ethical  demand  for  a  harmony  of  mo- 
rality and  happiness  never  attained  in  this  world, — deduces  the 
idea  of  immortality,  of  a  future  and  conscious  state  of  being. 
But  it  is  only  in  immediate  faith,  in  a  determination  of  con- 
sciousness by  revelation,  either  general  or  special ;  only  from  a 
source  other  than,  and  additional  to,  any  mere  logical  processes 
of  thought,  that  an  actual  hope  of  personal  immortality  is  pro- 
duced in  the  soul.  But  the  production  of  this  hope,  though 
independent  of  mere  reasoning,  does  not  shut  it  out.  It  in- 
volves reason  ;  it  is  natural ;  it  is  possible  to  the  human  mind, 
even  by  revelation,  only  because  that  mind  has  the  faculty  of 
the  reason.  It  is  natural,  therefore,  to  the  human  intellect  to 
receive,  though  it  cannot  produce  it.     Thus  may  theology  in 


446  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING    THIS    WANT. 

this  age  and  in  this  country  learn  much  from  the  vain  attempt 
to  find  certainty  of  rehgious  truth  in  reason  alone — to  find  a 
ground  for  religious  belief  independently  of  revelation.  This 
attempt  could  not  attain  its  object — the  inner  certainty  of  truth, 
the  reconciliation  of  Christianity  with  reason  in  the  sense  of  its 
being  a  mere  natural  religion. 

But  it  did  not  exist  in  vain.  It  has  been,  and  will  be  still 
more  effectually,  overruled  by  the  Spirit  for  the  advantage  of 
Christiarlity.  The  theologian  may,  from  the  past  history  of 
religious  thought,  learn  much  even  from  Rationalism.  In  oppo- 
sition to  all  narrow  and  constrained  orthodoxy,  it  will  be  of 
service  in  bringing  to  full  consciousness  the  fact  that,  though 
reason  cannot  discover  and  demonstrate  religious  truth,  it  can 
appreciate  it ;  and  that  there  are  spheres  and  relations  of  it,  in 
which  reason  is  an  important  help  to  theology.  It  has,  at  least, 
brought  to  view  the  value  and  power  of  elements  of  truth  which 
had  been  too  much  neglected  by  the  Church.  It  has  led  men 
more  fully  to  consider  the  nature  of  man,  the  point  especially — 
conscience — at  which  the  gospel  lays  hold  upon  him  ;  to  exhibit 
more  fully  the  wants  of  the  human  heart ;  to  study  more  care- 
fully the  general  revelation  of  God  in  conscience,  nature  and 
history ;  to  observe  more  earnestly  the  truth  that  it  is  the  same 
Eternal  Logos  who  "is  manifest  in  the  flesh"  for  the  salvation 
of  men,  who  "  made  all  things,"  who  "  is  the  light  that  lighteth 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world  ;"  to  take  more  compre- 
hensive views  of  the  connection  between  creation  and  redemp- 
tion, between  the  divine  plan  ol  the  world  and  the  grand  plan 
of  salvation — all  of  tvhich  was  present  in  germ  in  the  principle  of 
the  Lutheran  Reformation,  and  was,  from  the  beginning,  destined, 
in  some  way,  to  be  evolved  out  of  it. 

While  Rationalism  has  thus  by  compelling  theology  to  give 
greater  attention  to  the  points  of  contact  between  Christianity 
and  the  nature  of  man,  been  the  occasion  of  the  confirmation  of 
the  true  theory  of  the  appropriation  and  certainty  of  salvation ; 
Supernaturalism,  on  the  other  hand,  in  its  efforts  against  ration- 
alism, has  contributed  much  toward  making  clear,  for  all  time  to 
come,  the  necessity  of  recognizing  the  positive  element  in  the 
Christian  revelation.  And  though  it  failed  in  its  struggle  to 
maintain  the  claims  of  Christianity  as  a  special  revelation,  the 
reason  of  its  failure  was  the  occasion  of  makino;  more  manifest 


THE    INDIRECT   SERVICE   OF    RATIONALISM.  447 

the  fact  that  the  Christian  idea  of  God  and  the  world,  and  the 
method  of  bringing  the  revealed  truth  to  the  human  mind,  to 
which  the  principle  of  the  Reformation  leads,  had  not  been  fully 
apprehended. 

Rut  while  Rationalism  was  triumphant  on  the  common  ground 
— on  which  Supernaturalism  had  submitted  to  stand  with  it — it 
was  soon  destined  itself  to  pass  from  the  state  of  belief  in  natural 
religion,  to  the  atheism  of  pure  Naturalism.     The  same  logical 
process,  by  which   the  rationalist  opposed  Supernaturalism,  led 
him  into  pure  Naturalism.     But  even  from  the  course  of  Ration- 
alism to  this  deplorable  result,  we  may  learn  much  that  deserves 
the   attention   of   evangelical   theology.     The   attempts   of    the 
Critical   Philosophy  to   overturn  the  pretensions  of  the  Vulgar 
Rationalism   to  demonstrate  divine  truth   through  the  connec- 
tions  of  the    understanding — but  which   it   called  a  process  of 
reason — its  efforts  to  show  that  it  could  attain  to  certainty  of  the 
divine  altogether  by  the  mere  force  of  reason — although  they 
presented  but  one  side  of  the  truth,  and  themselves  culminated 
in  a  worse  form  of  Rationalism — the   Speculative  Rationalism 
— have  still  done  good  service  in  destroying  the  tendency  to 
require  and  the  attempt  to  employ  demonstration  on  subjects 
which  are  beyond  its  sphere.     The  effort  of  the  Egoistic  Ideal- 
ism to  bring  thought  and  being  into  union  through  volition  and 
action,  has  increased  the  attention  of  men  to  the  ethical  ele- 
ments in  man  and  in  Christianity  ;  that  of  the  Identity-Philoso- 
phy has  led  men  to  study   the  relations  and   reciprocities  be- 
tween nature  and  spirit ;  that  of  Absolute  Idealism   has  given 
increased  interest  to  the  Christian  idea  of  religion  as  the  union 
of  the  divine  and  the  human.     All  these  efforts  of  thought  to- 
gether with  those  of  "  the  Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious,"  to 
show  the  absurdity  of  the  denial  of  marks  of  intelligence  and 
design  in  the  world,  and  of  the  attempt  to  expound  the  universe 
on  the  grounds  of  materialism  or  of  any  theory  of  evolution — ■ 
not  even  excepting  that  of  Darwin — all  these,  notwithstanding 
their  errors,  are  still,  in  their  way,  a  preparation  for  a  return  to 
the  old  Evangelical  doctrine  of  the  true  source   of  truth  and 
assurance  of  salvation,   opened   up   in   the   great   Reformation. 
They  are,  indeed,  important  developments  of  the  subjective  in- 
terest which  was  revived  at  the  Reformation  ;  they  are,  in  some 
measure,  movements  which  had  to  occur  in  order  to  prepare  the 


448  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING   THIS    WANT. 

way  for  the  scientific  appreciation  of  that  clear  and  full  con- 
sciousness of  personality  in  God  and  man,  of  the  distinction 
and  the  union  of  God  and  man,  involved  in  the  certainty  of  sal- 
vation, and  the  fact  of  justification  by  faith  in  Christ  alone. 
Without  this  consciousness,  the  conditions  of  this  experience 
could  not  have  been  complied  with,  and  without  it  there  will 
never  be  attained  the  true  and  complete  speculative  apprehen- 
sion of  these  great  truths. 

So  the  erroneous  tendencies  of  these  philosophers  may,  as  a 
source  of  warning,  be  of  benefit  to  theology.  They  show  how 
dangerous  it  is  to  attempt  to  find  certainty  merely  through  the 
logical  understanding,  or  to  separate  between  the  faith,  which 
lies  in  consciousness,  and  the  process  of  reasoning.  Thus  the 
philosophy  of  Kant  led  to  a  Moralism  which  rejects  all  author- 
ity, and,  consequently,  all  positive  revelation  ;  that  of  Schelling 
and  of  Hegel  to  a  Pantheism  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  utterly 
inconsistent  with  the  Christian  faith.  But  they  should  be  of 
this  negative  benefit  to  us,  that  they  enable  us  to  see  the  resem- 
blance between  their  processes  and  many  of  those  involved  in 
the  defective  ecclesiastical  theories  which  were  noticed  in  a 
former  section.  This  similiarity  in  the  processes  of  philosophi- 
cal systems,  which  ended  in  such  Pantheistic  and  Deistic  results, 
with  many  of  those  in  the  church-theories,  may  enable  us  to 
come  to  a  clearer  consciousness  of  the  nature  of  the  defects  in 
the  latter;  and  thus,  also,  the  better  to  supply  them.  Great  and 
repeated  efforts  have  been  made  to  bring  the  results  of  these 
philosophies  directly  into  the  service  of  theology,  but  their  in- 
consistency with  it  has  only  become  the  more  manifest ;  and 
the  philosophies  themselves  have  resulted,  as  we  have  seen,  in 
leading  their  disciples  back  to  the  heathen  idea  of  God  and  man 
— to  accept  this  world  as  all,  and  death  as  the  end  of  all. 

These  results  should  deeply  impress  us  with  the  importance 
of  keeping  in  mind  the  invariable  end  of  all  our  personal  exper- 
ience and  of  all  our  observations  of  other  men,  namely,  that  re- 
ligion must  be  treated  as  an  element  of  life  universally  existing 
in  humanity,  and,  as  Christians  believe,  by  general  revelation  ; 
that  religious  faith  is  the  result  of  impressions  from  the  super- 
natural, just  as  certainly  as  natural  faith  is  from  impressions  of 
the  natural  world.  Like  the  sciences  of  all  other  life-elements 
of  human   nature,  like  the  sciences  of  language  and   morality, 


THE   TRUE    SOURCE    OF    CONFIDENXE.  449 

the  science  of  religion  must  have  a  starting-point  in  experience 
Theology  not  being  a  science  of  pure  knowledge,  but  of  the 
knowledge  which  is  an  element  of  faith,  must  accept  religion  as 
a  fact  of  life,  as  matter  of  experience.  In  the  midst  of  the  scof- 
fing tones  of  some,  and  the  sad  accents  of  others  in  the  philo- 
sophical world,  all  uniting  to  say :  This  world  of  sense  is  all — 
declaring  that  death  ends  all — it  hears  the  voice  of  Christian  ex- 
perience which  says  :  No  !  this  is  not  all.  My  God  is  more 
than  this,  even  "  the  King  eternal,  immortal,  incorruptible." 
Death  does  not  end  all  ;  my  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ,  has  risen 
from  the  dead,  and  He  can  say :  "  Behold,  I  and  the  children 
which  God  hath  given  me.  For  as  much  as  the  children  are 
partakers  of  flesh  and  blood,  He  also  Himself  likewise  took 
part  of  the  same  ;  that  through  death  He  might  destroy  him 
that  had  the  power  of  death,  that  is,  the  devil ;  and  deliver  them, 
who  through  fear  of  death  were  all  their  life-time  subject  to 
bondage."  "  For  as  many  as  are  led  by  the  spirit  of  God,  they 
are  the  sons  of  God."  "  For  ye  have  not  received  the  spirit  of 
bondage  again  to  fear,  but  the  spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we 
cry,  Abba,  Father.  And  the  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with 
our  spirit,  that  we  are  the  children  of  God  ;  and  if  children  then 
heirs  ;  heirs  of  God,  and  joint  heirs  with  Christ."  "  Who  is  He 
that  condemneth  ?  It  is  Christ  that  died,  yea  rather,  that  is  risen 
again,  who  is  even  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh 
intercession  for  us."  Does  the  law  thunder,  "  the  soul  that  sin- 
neth,  it  shall  die  ?"  Jesus,  the  embodiment  and  the  fulfillment  of 
the  law,  has  "died  for  me,"  and. by  His  spirit.  He  has  written 
the  law  in  my  heart.  Does  sin  arise  in  dread  array  ?  "  Christ 
rose  again  for  my  justification,"  and  He  is  greater  than  all  my 
sins.  Does  death  threaten,  the  grave  yawn,  and  hell  rage  ?  Christ 
has  taken  the  sting  from  death,  the  victory  from  the  grave,  and 
He  has  demolished  the  powers  of  hell.  "  He  has  carried  captiv- 
ity captive  and  received  good  gifts  for  men."  "  Nay,  in  all  these 
things  we  shall  be  more  than  conquerors  through  Him  that 
loved  us.  For  I  am  persuaded,  that  neither  death,  nor  life,  nor 
angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things  present,  nor 
things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other  creature, 
shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God,  which  is  in 
Christ  Jesus."  Starting,  thus,  from  Christianity  as  a  fact  of  life, 
theology  has  a  fair  field  of  operation  in  penetrating  into  the  es- 
29 


450  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING    THIS    WANT. 

sence  of  this  great  fact,  in  proceeding  from  the  outer  forms  in 
which  this  fact  has  been  presented  to  their  inner  spirit,  from  the 
transient  manifestations  of  it  to  the  permanent  substance,  from 
the  outer  changing  forms  to  the  inner  perduring  essence  of 
the  system  of  faith. 

§  5.  //  should  Labor  for  those  Views  of  Doctrine  and  those  Forms 
of  Expression  zvhicJi  shall  Exhibit  the  Fimdamental  Conception 
of  the  Chnrch  more  Clearly  and  Ii'np>'essively. 

We  beheve  that  such  a  process  is  practicable  in  regard  to  the 
Lutheran  dogmatic  forms ;  that  whatever  is  objectionable  is 
merely  transient,  destined  to  pass  away,  or  to  be  left  as  a  matter 
for  free  and  constant  investigation  ;  while  the  spirit  and  type  of 
the  doctrine  shall  appear  only  the  more  true  and  precious.  We 
believe  in  the  practicability  of  a  Lutheran  theology  true  to  the 
spirit,  conservative  of  the  genuine  type,  and  yet  capable  of 
modifying  the  mode  of  apprehending  the  specific  doctrine? 
and  of  exhibiting  them  in  rejuvenated  forms.  It  must,  indeed, 
be  conservative  of  the  great  principle,  in  all  its  changes  of  the 
mode  of  exhibiting  its  results. 

We  have  the  great  principle  of  the  Reformation  in  its  funda- 
mental bearings,  giving  the  personal  assurance  and  conscious 
experience  of  salvation,  together  with  the  revealed  idea  of  God 
and  the  world,  intuitively  apprehended  in  this  experience,  as  the 
groundwork.  In  the  application  of  this  principle,  in  consistently 
building  upon  this  groundwork,  we  must  have  a  clear  conscious- 
ness first  of  the  distinctive  peculiarities  of  true  Lutheranism  : 
the  realism  of  Luther,  the  union  of  the  word  and  faith ;  the 
historical  objective  certainty  of  the  revelation  of  salvation, 
secured  by  the  certainty,  sufficiency,  and  intelligibility  of  the 
sacred  Scriptures  ;  the  inner,  subjective  certainty  of  truth  and 
personal  assurance  of  salvation  produced  by  the  accompanying, 
superadded,  immediate  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  We  must 
recognize  the  miraculous  revelation  of  salvation  in  the  Word  and 
Sacraments — the  Saviour  manifested  in  the  historical  revelation 
by  the  Holy  Spirit ;  the  truth  of  the  proclamation  of  the  divine 
salvation  by  the  gospel  and  the  efficacy  of  it  by  the  constant 
presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  the  gift  of  the  Son,  and  the  gift 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  ;  as  inseparable.  Thus  salvation  is  offered 
to  every  man  by  the  Word  and  Sacraments,  and  the  Holy  Spirit 


THE    REALISTIC    FAITH    OF   TRUE    LUTHERANISM.  45  I 

makes  it  efficacious,  working  faith — saving  faith — in  all  who  do 
not  resist :  and  He  bears  witness  to  His  own  work  in  the  heart, 
produces  personal  assurance  of  salvation  and  inner  certainty  of 
truth — the  certitude  of  faith.  Thus  we  have  objective  and 
subjective  certainty  of  the  truth  and  reality  of  the  great  salva- 
tion— 'Certainty  of  the  truth  and  reality  of  the  revelation  of 
salvation  proclaimed  in  the  message  of  the  gospel ;  and  the  cer- 
tainty of  our  own  personal  interest  in  it — of  our  being  person- 
ally justified,  renewed,  and  adopted  into  the  family  of  God, 
This  realism  of  Lutheranism  must  be  preserved,  on  the  one 
hand,  against  the  mystical  idea  of  an  immediate  inner  commun- 
ion with  God,  or  of  any  enjoyment  of  divine  salvation  separate 
from  and  independent  of  God's  objective  revelation — of  the 
divinely  appointed  means  of  grace ;  and,  on  the  other,  against 
the  idea  of  absolute  predestination,  of  limited  atonement,  of 
special  grace  confined  to  the  unconditionally  elected : — against 
the  one,  because  it  ignores  the  necessity  of  the  miraculous 
divine  revelation  of  salvation  ;  against  the  other,  because,  while 
it  teaches  the  necessity  and  reality  of  that  revelation,  it  makes  it 
uncertain  to  the  individual ;  denies  the  certainty  of  its  being 
efficaciously  presented  to  all  ;  and  denies  that  the  Sacraments  are 
real  pledges  of  efficacious,  saving  grace  to  all  who  have  the  gos- 
pel, and  that  the  Holy  Ghost  invariably  accompanies  the  means 
of  grace,  producing  saving  faith  and  assurance  of  salvation  in 
all  who  do  not  resist  Him.  Thus,  true  Lutheranism  consists  in 
insisting  on  the  necessity  of  the  revelation  of  salvation  on  the 
one  hand,  on  the  sincerity  and  the  universality  of  the  offer  of  it 
on  the  other  ;  on  the  necessity  of  the  means  of  grace,  and  on 
the  reality  of  their  being  the  divine  pledge  and  presentation  of 
salvation  to  all  to  whom  they  come  ;  and  on  the  necessity  of 
inner,  conscious  experience  and  assurance  of  it.  It  requires  real 
experience.  The  faith  that  accepts  salvation  renounces  sin.  In 
bringing  us  into  reconciliation  and  communion  with  God,  it 
brings  us  also  into  enmity  and  antagonism  to  this  world — to 
depravity  and  sin.  Saving  faith,  therefore,  involves  personal, 
conscious  experience  of  the  regenerating  and  sanctifying  power 
of  the  Word  and  Spirit  of  God. 

Then,  again,  we  have  justification  by  faith  as  the  guiding  and 
determining  principle  in  the  investigation  of  all  doctrines  ;  the 
"Articulus  stantis  vel  cadentis  ecclesiae,"  as  the  light  in  which  to 


452  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING    THIS    WANT. 

estimate  them,  the  point  of  view  from  which  to  consider  their 
evangeHcal  character  in  spirit,  and  their  correctness  in  form.  If 
Luther  could  have  been  assured  of  any  honest  and  thorough 
apphcation  of  this  principle,  he  would  have  required  no  more  of 
any  man.  "  Let  heaven  and  earth  fall,"  he  says  in  the  Schmal- 
cald  Articles,  "or  whatever  else  that  will  not  remain,  we  cannot 
swerve  or  yield  anything  on  this  point.  Upon  this  article  is 
based  all  that  we  have  preached  and  done  against  the  Pope,  the 
devil  and  the  world.  On  this  point  there  must  be  no  doubting 
or  wavering,  or  all  is  lost,  and  the  Pope  and  the  devil  and  every 
thing  will  triumph  over  us."  And  history  has  proved  that  he 
was  right.  How  differently  he  speaks  of  other  points — of  mere 
doctrines — of  the  teachings  of  men,  and  even  of  his  own — we 
have  clearly  seen  in  the  extracts  already  given;  but  we  may  add 
one  more.  In  the  preface  to  "The  Instruction  of  the  Visitors 
of  the  Pastors  in  the  Electorate  of  Saxony,"  he  declares  "that 
he  does  not  issue  them  as  mandates,  lest  they  should  be  the  oc- 
casion of  new  papal  decrees,  but  as  a  record  or  transaction  (eine 
historic  oder  geschichte),  which  might  serve  as  our  confession 
and  testimony."  If  he  were  now  living,  he  would  certainly  be 
ready  for  the  work  of  applying  anew  the  great  principle  of  the 
Reformation.  The  manner,  for  instance,  in  which  he  felt  the 
necessity  of  waiting  for  further  development  of  evangelical  ex- 
perience, before  the  work  of  science  in  Christian  ethics  and  in 
church  government  could  be  safely  and  successfully  undertaken, 
shows  how  he  would  now  avail  himself  of  all  that  development 
for  hundreds  of  years.  If,  then,  we  ask  in  how  far  the  peculiar 
Lutheran  views  of  the  Word  and  Sacraments  are  essential  to  the 
most  effective  presentation  and  pledging  of  saving  grace,  and  if 
so,  in  what  forms  would  they  be  expressed  ?  or  if  there  should 
be  heterogeneous  elements  to  be  eliminated,  or  modifications 
desirable  to  be  made,  what  new  statements  of  them  have  become 
necessary  and  practicable? — the  answer  is,  we  must  apply  anew  the 
principle  of  justifying  faith.  If  they  imply  any  saving  efficacy  of 
them  without  faith,  as  justification  without  faith  in  infant  baptismal 
regeneration ;  then  these  views  must  be  found  capable  of  an  ex- 
planation consistent  with  the  requirement  of  justification  by  faith, 
or  they  must  be  modified;  and,  while  the  fundamental  conception 
remains,  the  details  and  forms  of  these  views  must  be  subjected 
to  the  determining  principle  of  Lutheranism.     The  substance  of 


PREPARATION  FOR  THIS  IMPORTANT  WORK.       453 

the  Lutheran  doctrines  concerning  the  Word  and  Sacraments, 
we  are  convinced,  will  endure  investigations,  and  will  be  more 
and  more  appreciated  and  appropriated  by  all  evangelical  Chris- 
tians— a  process,  as  is  well  known,  which  is  now  rapidly  going  on 
in  England  and  in  this  country.  And  the  fact  that  this  never 
was  the  case  while  these  views  were  made  unconditionally  bind- 
ing, should  encourage  us  to  attempt  this  new  and  free  appro- 
priation. 

§  6.  TJic  General  Synod  is  a  Practical  ExeniplificatioJi  of  snch 
Evangelical  Lutheranism,  and  a  Good  Preparation  for  the 
Specidative  Apprehension  of  It. 

About  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  General  Synod  in  this 
country,  there  began  to  be  a  return  to  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation  in  the  Fatherland.  As  the  result  of  a  great  revival 
of  religious  interest  in  Germany,  the  doctrine  of  justification 
acquired,  in  some  degree,  its  old  prominence  in  the  system  of 
Christian  doctrines.  And  ev^ery  revival  of  religion  has  contrib- 
uted to  this  revival  of  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation.  It  was  in 
the  revival  of  evangelical  religion  that  the  General  Synod  origi- 
nated; and  in  this  spirit  it  was  organized.  It  was  the  work  of 
men  who,  like  Spener  and  Franke,  labored  for  the  spiritual  ap- 
priation  of  saving  truth,  for  the  conversion  of  men,  for  the  ex- 
perimental and  the  practical  in  religion,  in  contradistinction  from 
the  cold  formalism  into  which  a  great  part  of  the  Church  in  this 
country  had  fallen.  Through  the  provisions  of  its  formula  for 
government  and  discipline,  the  modes  of  its  theological  training, 
the  peculiar  methods  of  its  instruction  and  worship,  it  labored 
for  the  revival  of  experimental  religion.  By  this  special  interest 
in  the  revival  of  personal  experience  of  the  certainty  of  salvatioit 
among  the  members  of  the  Church — by  these  special  efforts  for 
the  conversion  of  sinners — justification  as  a  matter  of  fact,  as  a 
matter  of  experience,  became  central  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  and 
zvas  made  prominent  as  the  principle,  the  groundivork,  of  our  sys- 
tem of  doctrine.  And  while  there  was  not  much  public  discus- 
sion of  doctrinal  points,  there  perhaps  never  was  a  body  of 
ministers  whose  preaching  was  more  thoroughly  and  uniformly 
evangelical,  in  the  Reformation  sense  of  the  term.  Sin  and 
grace  were  the  great  themes  of  the  pulpit  throughout  the  entire 
bounds  of  the  Synod.     If  this  personal  interest  in  the  assurance 


454  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING   THIS    WANT. 

of  salvation  was  the  source  of  the  Reformation  as  well  as  the 
characteristic  of  it,  and  if  the  principle  of  justification  became 
the  regulative  principle,  in  the  early  days  of  the  Reformation,  of 
the  entire  system  of  doctrine,  such  was  also  the  case  here ;  and 
the  way  has  thus  been  prepared  for  the  application  anew  of  this 
principle  in  all  its  bearings  upon  the  intellectual  appreliejision  and 
the  doctrinal  statements  of  the  views  held  in  our  CJiurcJi,  for  the 
further  elimination  of  heterogeneous  materials,  and  the  more 
complete  appropriation  of  that  which  is  most  precious  in  the 
true  spirit  and  type  of  evangelical  Lutheran  doctrine.  While 
we  do  this,  we  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  understood  that  we  do 
not  desire  to  depreciate  the  Confession  of  the  Church.  On  the 
contrary,  we  acknowledge  that  the  more  we  study  it,  the  more 
we  feel  its  truth  and  excellence.  We  consider  our  Creed,  just  as 
it  is,  the  best  in  Christendom.  There  is  no  other  confession  to 
which  we  could  with  as  little  difficulty  subscribe  unconditionally; 
and  while  we  think  that  the  forms  of  some  of  our  doctrines 
need  explanation  anew,  in  the  light  of  the  Scriptures  and  the 
past  experience  of  the  Church — and  even  modification — we  do 
believe  them  to  be  capable  of  such  evangelical  interpretation 
without  affecting  the  substance  of  them,  or  destroying  the  integ- 
rity of  the  sys«tem  to  which  they  belong.  We  think  such  ex- 
planation or  modification  should  be  made,  as  would  guard 
against  defective  apprehensions  of  them,  or  real  misapprehen- 
sions of  them  ;  against  erroneous  deductions  from  some  of  their 
forms — evils  to  which  they  have  been  exposed  in  the  past — 
such,  for  example,  as  "is  most  distinctly  seen  in  the  controversy 
of  the  orthodox  Christians  with  the  Pietists,  respecting  the 
theologia  irregenitoruni','' — when  "the  orthodox  expressly  affirmed 
that  the  oflficial  acts  of  unregenerate  preachers  might  be  attended 
with  as  rich  a  blessing  as  those  of  the  regenerate,  if  only  they 
preached  the  orthodox  doctrines,  and  that  it  was  possible  to  pen- 
etrate into  the  truths  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  without  a  regener- 
ate heart."  We  believe,  indeed,  that  those  very  aspects  of  some 
of  our  doctrines,  which  have  been  thus  proved  to  be  very  liable 
to  abuse,  contain  important  elements  of  truth — elements  of  truth 
meant  to  be  maintained  by  their  being  put  in  their  present  form 
— elements  of  truth  which  we  heartily  adopt  and  intend  to 
maintain,  though  we  may  present  them  in  a  somewhat  different 
form. 


EXAMPLES    IN    THE    REFORMERS    THEMSELVES.  455 

In  the  conflicts  of  the  Lutherans  with  the  Romanists,  and 
their  controversies  with  the  Reformed,  as  well  as  in  their  oppo- 
sition to  the  fanatical  parties  of  the  day — in  short,  in  the  condi- 
tion and  circumstances  of  the  Church  in  the  sixteenth  century — 
positions  were  taken  on  some  points  of  doctrine,  which  were 
afterward  carried  to  such  extremes,  and  into  such  details,  that 
they  appear  in  forms  inconsistent  with  the  principle  of  the  Re- 
formation, with  the  fact  of  our  justification  by  faith  alone,  with 
personal  experience  of  salvation;  and  which  consequently  were 
destined  from  the  beginning  to  be  finally  modified  or  changed  in 
the  process  of  time,  and  by  the  accumulation  of  experience  re- 
specting their  truth  and  necessity,  their  propriety  and  bearing. 
In  such  cases  certainly  there  should  be,  and  can  be,  changes  of 
form,  not  only  consistently  zvitli,  but  directly  ytr,  the  preservation 
of  the  spirit  and  substance  of  the  doctrines.  Acting  in  this  free 
way — laying  hold  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  in  \h€\x  funda- 
vtental  aspects,  and  treating  them  in  the  way  wlucJi  we  have  indi- 
cated, in  point  of  form,  of  relative  importance,  of  minor  relations, 
of  details  of  statement — will  not  diminish  the  importance  of  the 
doctrines,  but  will  only  lead  to  a  clearer  apprehension  of  them, 
and  a  more  complete  appropriation  of  their  spirit  and  substance. 
Dogmatic  interest  should  have  a  bearing  upon  the  form  of  doc- 
trine now,  as  it  has  ever  had.  We  have  manifest  instances  of 
this  in  the  Reformers  themselves. 

§  7.  Illustration  in  The  Treatment  of  the  Doctrine  of  Absolute 
Predestination . 

We  see  this  in  the  treatment  and  final  disposition  made  of  the 
doctrine  of  unconditional  election,  by  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Church  of  the  sixteenth  century.  This  doctrine  was  held  by 
all  the  principal  Reformers  in  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation  ; 
and  was  maintained  by  Luther  against  Erasmus,  as  if  he  regarded 
it  as  inseparable  from  the  doctrine  of  salvation  by  grace  through 
faith.  The  occasion  of  this  seems  to  have  been  the  necessity 
of  resisting,  in  the  most  decided  manner,  the  Pelagian  tenden- 
cies then  prevalent  in  the  Romish  Church.  This  was  regarded 
by  the  Reformers  as  destructive  of  all  true  religion.  Even  the 
magical  optis  operatum  was  not  regarded  by  them  as  destructive 
of  all  piety.  But  genuine  piety  and  Pelagianism  could  not,  in 
their  view,  exist  together ;  and  there  seemed,  at  the  same  time, 


456  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING    THIS    WANT. 

to  be  an  inseparable  connection  between  the  denial  of  absolute 
predestination  and  Pelagianism.  But  when  they  began  to  feel, 
on  the  one  hand,  that  unconditional  election  was  in  conflict  with 
the  proclamation  to  all,  indiscriminately,  of  justification  by  grace 
through  faith  ;  and,  especially,  with  their  idea  of  the  specializing 
of  the  offer  of  grace  to  each  individual  subject  in  the  Sacra- 
ments ;  that  in  baptism,  for  instance,  each  subject  receives  a 
special  pledge  of  God's  pardoning  grace — they  were  disposed 
to  reject,  or,  at  least,  to  dispense  with,  the  doctrine  of  absolute 
predestination  in  the  system.  And  when,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  saw,  in  the  pledging  significance  of  the  Word  and  Sacra- 
ments, that  gracious  ability  which  enabled  them,  as  they  thought, 
to  maintain  the  doctrine  of  the  total  depravity  and  natural  in- 
ability of  man — without  the  aid  of  the  idea  of  unconditional 
election  or  irresistible  grace — they  regarded  the  doctrine  of 
absolute  predestination  as  destitute  of  any  dogmatic  value  in 
their  system.  Hence  they  silently  passed  it  by  in  their  Confes- 
sion at  Augsburg,  and  at  length  generally  and  finally  rejected  it. 
Still  they  retained  Augustinianism  in  other  respects,  and  it  can 
not  be  said  that  the  Church  ever  did,  or  ever  will,  accept  the  re- 
jection of  absolute  predestination  in  the  spirit  and  forms  of 
Arminianism.  She  does  not  the  less  decidedly  reject  Pelagian- 
ism ;  she  only  restricts  Augustinianism.  And  while  we  agree 
with  the  Church  in  rejecting  this  doctrine,  we  cannot  refrain 
from  declaring  that  it  too  contains  elements  of  truth,  and  fosters 
tendencies  in  the  spirit  of  religion,  which  should  never  be  lost 
from  the  Church.  And  its  rejection  of  the  doctrine  should 
rather  be  a  rejection  of  the  form,  and  a  mere  restriction  of  the 
application  of  the  doctrine  itself  But  we  have  in  this  an  ex- 
ample of  the  bearing  of  the  principle  of  justification  by  faith 
alone,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Reformers  themselves 
applied  it  to  the  freeing  of  the  system  from  heterogeneous 
elements,  and  for  preserving  the  spirit  of  the  evangelical  faith. 

§  8.   TJic  same  True  of  Their  Rigid  Adherence  to  the  Real  Presence. 

So  their  peculiar  views  in  regard  to  the  Sacraments  had  a 
close  connection  with  the  idea  of  the  necessity  of  maintaining 
their  pledging  significance  in  its  fullest  extent.  Just  as  they 
had  thought  predestination  necessary  as  a  bar  to  Pelagianism, 
so,  in  their  opposition  to  what  they  regarded  as  a  false  spiritual- 


INFLUENCE    OF   A    DOGMATIC    INTEREST.  457 

ism,  as  a  fanatical  tendency,  as  a  disposition  to  depreciate  the 
Sacraments,  they  were  led,  in  a  great  measure,  to  the  tenacity 
with  which  they  contended  for  the  real  presence  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  in  the  Lord's  Supper  as  a  fundamental  point. 
Its  significance  is  to  be  found  in  the  view  of  the  communication 
of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  as  an  additional  pledge  of  the 
forgiveness  of  sin  in  the  ordinance.  They  taught  that  we 
receive  no  blessing  in  the  Sacraments  other  than  in  the  Word  ; 
and,  consequently,  that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  orally 
received,  are  not  the  saving  benefit  received  in  the  Sacrament, 
but  only  a  pledge  of  it.  They  differed  from  the  Reformed  in 
this  matter  only  in  this,  that  while  the  latter  were  content  with 
the  Word  and  the  Symbols  as  pledges  of  prevenient  grace  in  the 
Sacraments,  they  added  to  these  the  real  presence  and  oral 
communication  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  as  a  most 
precious  pledge  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins.  The  gift  of  forgive- 
ness of  sins  is  the  only  benefit,  and  the  same — no  more,  no  less 
than  what  is  received  through  the  Word.  But  they  regarded 
the  presence  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  as  a  pledge  of  this. 
Now,  who  can  fail  to  see  the  influence  of  a  dogmatic  interest  in 
this  ?  And  who  shall  say  that  if  this  laudable  desire  to  main- 
tain in  its  full  extent  the  precious  idea  of  the  pledging  signifi- 
cance of  the  Sacrament  could,  in  their  estimation,  have  remained 
unimpaired  ;  that  if  the  fear  that  the  Reformed  view  contained 
an  element  of  that  fanaticism  which  depreciated  the  value  of  the 
Sacraments,  could  have  been  removed  ;  or  that  if  the  idea  of  the 
Reformed  had  originally  been,  what  it  became  after  its  modifica- 
tion by  Calvin, — they  would  not  have  taken  a  different  position, 
as  did  Melanchthon  and  a  great  part  of  the  most  pious  and 
intelligent  members  of  the  Church,  both  of  the  ministry  and  the 
laity.  We  are,  therefore,  acting  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  princi- 
ple of  the  original  Lutheran  Reformation,  when  after  the  lapse 
of  centuries,  in  which  experience  has  proved  that  there  was  not, 
or,  at  least,  that  there  is  not  nozv,  any  solid  reason  for  that  dog- 
matic interest;  that  the  dangers  feared  by  the  church  were 
imaginary,  or,  at  least,  that  they  are  not  iiaiu  real ;  that  the  here- 
sies, which  they  thought  were  involved,  and  the  depreciation  of 
the  Sacraments,  which  they  expected  to  follow  from  the  rejec- 
tion of  the  doctrine  of  the  corporeal  presence,  have  not  been 
realized, — we  place  the  peculiar  views  of  the  Sacraments  among 


458  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING    THIS    WANT. 

the  non-fundamentals — doctrines  which  they  who  think  them 
unscriptural  and  inconsistent  with  the  great  principle  of  justifi- 
cation by  faith  alone,  should  be  permitted  to  reject  without 
being  regarded  as  unfaithful  to  the  true  Lutheranism,  or  sub- 
jected to  ecclesiastical  censure.  If  the  rigid  adherence  of  the 
strict  Lutherans  to  their  views  was  of  service  in  checking-  tend- 
encies  which  would,  perhaps,  otherwise  have  interfered  with  the 
proper  use  and  benefit  of  the  ordinance,  it  has  done  its  work. 
Those  tendencies  do  not  now  exist  in  the  other  branches  of 
Protestantism  ;  and  there  is  now  no  good  reason  for  making  the 
peculiar,  strict  Lutheran  views  terms  of  communion.  They 
should  be  regarded  as  capable  of  improvement  in  form,  if  7iot  in 
spirit — as  capable  of  development ;  and  considered  the  proper 
subjects  of  theological  investigation,  so  that  everything  defective 
in  the  statement  of  them  might  be  amended,  and  that,  at  the 
same  time,  the  realism  of  Luther,  the  precious  idea  principally 
intended  to  be  maintained  and  preserved  by  them,  might  be  the 
more  clearly  apprehended,  and  the  more  fully  appropriated — 
namely,  Luther's  intense  idea  of  the  reality  of  the  union  of  the 
two  natures  in  the  person  of  Christ,  and  of  the  reality  of  the 
offer  of  salvation  as  made  to  all  in  the  Word  and  Sacraments. 
In  so  far  as  these  views  are  connected  with  Luther's  realistic 
idea  of  divine  revelation,  with  his  realistic  view  of  Christ's 
relation  to  us,  they  preserve  for  us  a  precious  element  of  truth. 
And  the  great  idea  that  we  need  such  pledges  of  God's  preveni- 
ent  grace  as  the  Sacraments  exhibit,  together  with  a  real  com- 
munion with  Christ — with  his  entire  person,  in  his  human  as  well 
as  in  his  divine  nature — should,  indeed,  always  be  maintained 
and  made  prominent  in  our  exhibition  of  the  great  salvation  in 
the  Sacraments  as  well  as  in  the  Word.  But  this  can  certainly 
be  done  as  fully  in  connection  with  the  views,  for  instance,  of 
Melanchthon,  as  of  those  of  Luther,  on  this  point. 

§  9.    The  Dogmatic  Interest  in  the  Communicatio  Idiomatum. 

The  doctrine  of  the  real  presence  seemed  to  require  that  of 
the  ubiquity  of  Christ's  body,  and  to  be,  at  least,  the  occasion 
of  the  Lutheran  view  of  the  comm7inicatio  idiomatum.  The 
doctrine  of  Luther  concerning  the  human  nature  of  Christ,  and 
especially  his  views  respecting  His  real  luiman  development,  so 
fully   and   decidedly   expressed   before  the  controversy   on  the 


THE    EARLIER    VIEWS    OF    LUTHER    INDESTRUCTIBLE.         459 

Lord's  Supper,  seems  to  be  so  irreconcilable  with  the  implications 
in  this  doctrine,  that  one  cannot  refrain  from  the  thought  that, 
if  he  could  have  found  another  argument  equally  adapted  to 
sustain  the  doctrine  of  the  real  presence,  he  would  not  have 
adopted  this ;  especially  does  this  seem  probable  when  we  re- 
remember  that  those  earlier  views — which  he  had  deemed  im- 
portant enough  to  be  classed  in  "  the  New  Wisdom  " — were 
never  recalled  by  him.  These  earlier  views,  therefore,  which 
are  manifestly  the  result  of  the  great  central  doctrine — justifica- 
tion by  faith — are  consequently  those  which  are  destined  to  live 
and  to  be  united  with  the  proper  apprehension  of  his  deep  view 
of  the  real  union  of  the  divine  and  the  human  natures,  which  he 
always  held ;  while  the  later  doctrine  will  be  abandoned,  or  at 
least  modified,  and  regarded  as  non-fundamental.  This  is  man- 
ifest from  the  difference  of  opinion  which  underlies  the  entire 
exhibition  of  the  doctrine  even  in  the  Formula  of  Concord ; 
and  from  the  liberties  on  this  subject,  yea,  modifications  of  the 
doctrine,  indulged  in  not  only  by  the  moderate,  but  also  by  the 
most  rigid  old  Lutherans  of  modern  times.  Thus,  for  example, 
while  the  Reformed  have  adopted  very  generally  the  Lutheran 
doctrine  of  the  capacity  of  human  nature  for  the  divine,  the 
strict  Lutherans  of  the  present  day  have  accepted  the  Reformed 
application  of  the  kevuglc  spoken  of  in  Phil.  ii.  7,  to  the  Aoyof 
AaapKOQ.  They  apply  this  self-limitation  to  the  divine  nature 
of  Christ — to  the  Logos  himself;  and  many  of  the  most  strictly 
orthodox,  such  as  Thomasius,  conceive  of  this  self-limitation 
"as  a  self-depotentiation  of  the  Logos,  out  of  love;  so  that  the 
Logos  has  limited  himself  in  His  being  even  to  adequacy  with 
the  embryonic  life  of  a  human  child,  in  order,  first  gradually 
out  of  the  unconscious  self-given  form,  now  in  unity  with  a  man 
or  divine-human,  as^ain  to  become  self-conscious,  and  ag-ain  to 
acquire  his  actuality  in  and  out  of  Himself"  To  which  Dorner 
adds :  "  From  this,  the  old  Lutheran  dogmatics  (of  former 
times)  is  so  infinitely  removed,  that  even  when,  for  the  sake  of 
the  truth  of  the  cxinanitio,  it  denies  majestas  to  the  humanity 
on  earth,  it  still  maintains  that  the  Logos,  united  with  such 
humanity,  unchanged  in  Himself,  governs  the  world  in  an  om- 
nipresent manner ;  and  that,  for  the  time  of  the  becoming,  a 
divine  consciousness  and  willing  are  to  be  received — a  conscious- 
ness which   is  not  yet  the  consciousness  of  the   man.     Here, 


460  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING    THIS    WANT. 

also,  the  cxinanitio  is  made  the  presupposition  of  the  incarna- 
tion, which  is  characteristic  of  the  Reformed,  whilst  the  Luth- 
eran doctrine  made  the  mcarnation  precede  the  cxinanitio." 
(Dorner's  His.  of  Doc.  of  Person  of  Christ,  Vol.  II.,  p.  1262- 
1267.) 

The  following  thoughts,  collected  from  Dorner's  History  of 
the  Doctrine  of  the  Person  of  Christ,  are  offered  for  the  reader's 
consideration  :  "  The  silence  of  the  first  edition  of  the  Loci, 
respecting  the  Trinity  of  the  Godhead  and  the  two  natures  in 
Christ,  indicates  indifference  to  the  fine-spun  and  scholastic 
forms  of  these  doctrines,  the  conviction  of  Luther  and  Melanch- 
thon  that  they  are  not  fundamental  to  the  Christian  faith,  the 
confidence  that  what  is  necessary  to  salvation  is  implicitly  con- 
tained in  the  central  point  of  the  gospel,  and  that  the  way  is 
open  for  a  regeneration  of  these  dogmas.  Luther  had,  in  his 
clear  and  energetic  apprehension  of  the  God-manhood — the  ap- 
propriation of  all  that  is  human  by  the  divine,  and  all  that  is 
divine  by  the  human — the  germ  of  the  true  Christology.  But 
he  was  led  by  the  sacramental  controversy  to  regard  this  as 
completed  at  once.  His  deep  and  rich  Christological  intuitions 
were  not  systematically  developed  ;  and,  after  the  controversy 
with  the  Swiss,  were  unfortunately  put  under  the  guidance  of 
another  doctrine.  At  first  the  God-manhood  and  its  becoming 
were  kept  in  connection,  but  after  this  controversy  began,  the 
historical  becoming  was  made  to  retire  before  the  glorified — the 
exalted.  Melanchthon  continued  in  Luther's  early  thoughts, 
but  did  not  reach  his  depth — so  Brentz  and  Chemnitz  were  re- 
spectively related  to  Luther  and  Melanchthon.  The  inner  rec- 
onciliation of  these  two  would  be  the  birth  of  a  new  and  higher 
Christology — a  form  of  it  analogous  to  the  Lutheran  doctrine 
of  justification;  yea,  would  be  essentially  also  the  reconciliation 
of  the  Reformed  and  Lutheran  Christology,  and  mediately  of 
their  respective  doctrines  respecting  the  Lord's  Supper.  But 
this  was  attempted  prematurely.  Instead  of  the  antithesis  of 
the  Wuertembergers,  and  the  Saxons  with  Chemnitz  at  their 
head,  having  time  to  be  brought  to  clear  consciousness,  the 
points  of  difference  were  covered  over,  in  their  common 
antagonism  to  the  opponents  of  their  doctrine  concerning  the 
Lord's  Supper ;  whilst  this  doctrine,  instead  of  dogmatically 
leading,  should   have  awaited  its  completion  from   Christology. 


REMAINS    OF    JUDAISM    AN'D    HEATHENISM.  46 1 

Hence  the  concessions,  compromises,  contradictions,  in  which 
they  are  involved.  New  presuppositions,  which  were  lacking 
to  both  parties,  belong  to  it — the  clear  insight  into  that  which 
belongs  to  the  idea  of  man,  the  knowledge  of  his  ethical  endow- 
ments and  of  the  ethical  laws  of  his  becoming,  a  philosophy 
imbued  with  the  Protestant  spirit.  But  this  did  not  yet  exist." 
(Vol.  II.,  705-717.) 

"  Both  the  Reformed  and  the  Lutherans  insisted  upon  the 
real  and  not  merely  apparent  humanity,  in  opposition  to  the 
Mediaeval  defect  in  this  respect :  the  Reformed  more  in  that 
form  for  which  the  earthly  relations  are  the  measure  ;  the 
Lutheran  more  in  the  ideal  or  the  idea  of  the  glorified  humanity, 
in  comparison  with  which  the  empirical  form  of  our  human  life 
has  still  clinging  to  it  something  transient  and  merely  apparent. 
The  theological  and  anthropological  conditions  for  the  appre- 
hension and  statement  of  the  ethical  attributes  of  God,  upon 
which  Luther  laid  so  much  stress  that  he  saw  in  them  the 
innermost  essence  of  God,  were  still  wanting.  But  the  principle 
of  the  Reformation  carried  in  its  bosom  a  true  Christology, 
whether  sooner  or  later  appearing ;  and  in  this  sense  also  it  is 
an  endless  beginning.  Certain  previous  questions  must  be 
decided,  certain  presuppositions  established,  without  which  a 
satisfactory  Christology  is  impossible.  Remains  of  Judaism 
and  Heathenism,  of  Pantheism  and  Deism,  must  be  overcome. 
Aristotelianism  prevailed  before,  and,  notwithstanding  Luther's 
opposition,  prevailed  more  and  more  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  in  the  seventeenth,  quite  as  much  as  in  the  Catholic  theol- 
ogy. It  was  suited  to  the  purpose  of  analyzing  that  which  is 
given  by  tradition  as  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  salvation. 
How  different  the  state  of  the  case  in  the  time  of  the  Reforma- 
tion !  At  that  time  the  religious  spirit  opened  for  itself  the  way 
for  cognizing  what  is,  in  the  first  instance,  merely  traditional, 
based  on  external  authority,  according  to  its  inner,  self-depend- 
ent power  and  truth  ;  not  content  with  the  merely  objective,  but 
unfettered  and  free  to  make  the  merely  external  its  spiritual 
possession,  its  innermost  truth  and  certainty.  The  spirit  of  the 
Reformation  would  allow  itself  to  be  bound  by  nothing  but  the 
inner  power  of  truth,  and  for  this  reason  turned  away  from  the 
system  of  Catholicism."  (Vol.  II,  pp.  932,  933.) 

"  But  this  spirit  was  arrested  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and 


462  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING    THIS    WANT. 

concealed  in  a  form  which  received  more  and  more  the  Hnea- 
ments  of  the  formally  renounced  Romish  church,  returning  in 
principle  to  the  occupancy  of  common  ground  with  her,  and 
seeming  to  recognize  no  higher  aim  than  to  be  a  rival  Church 
with  her.  This  appears  most  significantly  in  the  retrograde  form- 
ing of  the  doctrine  of  justifying  faith,  and  of  the  person  of  Christ 
— in  principle  to  the  Catholic  type.  Not  only  was  the  ethico- 
religious  side  of  faith,  according  to  which  it  is  fiducia  and  certi- 
tudo  salittis,  again  insensibly  changed  into  an  intellectual  'good 
work,'  into  an  accommodation  of  the  thinking  to  the  conception 
of  orthodoxy,  and  the  subjection  of  the  will  under  the  ecclesi- 
astical dogmas  which  controlled  the  interpretation  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures,  but  also  the  Reformatory  life-point,  the  certainty  of 
salvation  of  the  justified,  the  new  personality,  in  which,  through 
the  affiancing  of  the  divine  and  the  human  in  faith,  the  all-suffi- 
cient beginning-point  of  perfection  is  placed,  was  distorted  and 
buried — yea,  under  the  evangelical  name,  was  remodeled  into  the 
Catholic.  For  what  was  an  imputation  of  the  righteousness  of 
Christ,  which,  instead  of  being  the  beginning  and  the  principle 
for  perfection,  becomes  much  more  its  goal,  and  does  not  consti- 
tute the  transition  to  a  continuity  of  the  new  life,  other  than 
the  restoration  to  the  believing  man  of  the  donmn  supcradditum 
of  the  Roman  Church,  which  never  can  and  never  is  to  belong 
to  the  man,  and  against  which  Luther  so  zealously  spoke,  well 
knowing  that  in  this  was  rooted  the  extreme  point  of  his  antag- 
onism with  Rome  ?  But  the  same  thing  was  carried  out  in 
Christology,  in  which  the  effect  of  the  coinitiunicatio  idiomatum 
was  to  be  most  adequately  described  as  a  kind  of  donunt  super- 
additiim  for  the  humanity  of  Christ.  Not  to  speak  of  the  Docetic 
and  Catholicizing  remains  even  in  the  Christology  of  the  For- 
mula of  Concord."  (Vol.  II.,  p.  933.) 

"But  where  the  doctrines  of  objective  and  subjective  salvation 
were  thus  placed  upon  the  point  of  the  doniini  superaddituin — 
where  nature  and  supernatural  grace  were  still  represented  as 
foreign  to,  and  exclusive  of,  each  other — there  a  consistent 
science  was  impossible."  "  The  entire  history  of  Christology  is 
a  witness  to  the  fact,  that  if  that  conception  of  the  divine  and 
the  human  as  two  absolutely  opposite  substances — which,  in  the 
Chalcedon  Dogma  of  the  two  natures,  secured  for  itself,  in  the 
historical  sense,  the  sanction  of  the  Church — be  true,  then  there 


NEED    OF    RE-INVESTIGATION    AND    REMODELING.  463 

remains  but  the  alternative,  in  some  form,  of  Ebionitism  or 
Docetism,  of  Nestorianism  or  Monophysitism.  The  conception 
of  the  divine  and  the  human  has,  therefore,  to  be  investigated 
anew  and  remodeled  before  a  purer  Christology  can  come  into 
existence."  "  For  this  investigation,  and  for  this  formation  of 
a  new  Christian  philosophy,  the  Church  of  the  Reformation 
has  in  it  the  impulse,  which  was  not  to  be  exhausted  by  any  of 
the  parasitic  formations  that  belonged  only  to  an  earlier  stage." 
(Vol.  II.,  pp.  934,  935.) 

While,  therefore,  we  resist  the  attempt  to  make  the  symbol- 
ically-established view  of  this  doctrine  fundamental  to  true 
Lutheran  theology,  we  should  not  depreciate  the  subject,  but 
endeavor  to  develop  it  in  the  light  of  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation.  It  is  one  of  great  importance ;  and,  viewed  in 
its  true  bearings,  the  strictly  Lutheran  view  of  it  may  yet  be 
exhibited  in  such  forms  as  to  be  acceptable  to  most  Lutheran 
minds,  and  be  found  capable  of  being  properly  appreciated  by 
Christians  generally.  The  Lutheran  proposition,  natura  Jiuuiana 
capax  divince,  once  so  universally  and  sternly  rejected  by  the 
Reformed,  is  now  generally  recognized,  and  by  many  highly 
prized.  And  it  is  so  closely  connected  with  the  fundamental 
idea  of  religion  as  union  and  communion  with  God — with  the 
idea  of  man  as  made  for  the  infinite,  and  destined  for  eternity — 
with  the  idea  of  the  union  of  divinity  and  humanity  in  the  in- 
carnation— that  it  may  certainly  be  studied  with  great  personal 
benefit.  It  is  so  closely  connected  with  the  Scriptural  view  of 
the  plan  of  God — the  plan  for  "the  reconciliation  of  all  things, 
whether  they  be  things  in  heaven  or  things  in  earth  " — the  plan 
of  God  as  embracing  both  the  first  and  the  second  creation  in 
the  great  work  of  the  Mediator  and  Redeemer,  with  the  cos- 
mical  relations  of  the  Saviour  in  His  kingly  office  as  the  Lord 
of  nature  as  well  as  the  King  of  saints,  with  His  work  in  the 
corporeal  resurrection  of  His  people,  the  liberation  of  nature  in 
connection  with  the  glorious  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God, 
the  transformation  of  the  material  universe  into  the  grand  theatre 
and  the  suitable  instrumentality  of  His  glorious  spiritual  king- 
dom, to  become  the  fit  image  and  the  appropriate  organ  of  the 
perfected  spirit — it  is  so  vast  in  its  compass,  so  endless  in  its 
bearings,  that  it  claims  the  attention  of  all  who  would  gain  true, 
just   and   enlarged   views   of  their   Saviour's   person,  work  and 


464  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING    THIS    WANT. 

glory.  And  it  has  been  observed  as  somewhat  remarkable  that 
while  every  one  must  at  once  be  struck  with  the  affinity  of  the 
Lutheran  view  of  the  person  of  Christ  with  these  cosmical  re- 
lations and  bearings,  Calvin's  views  have,  notwithstanding, 
been  actually  more  used,  and  have  much  greater  influence  in 
these  directions  of  Christian  thought.  It  seems  very  probable 
that  this  would  not  have  been  the  case  if  the  Lutheran  view  had 
been  as  free  as  that  of  Calvin  from  the  trammels  of  the  creed. 
But  be  this  as  it  may,  as  the  subject  is  confessedly  one  difficult 
of  apprehension,  as  the  interests  here  noticed  are  not  shut  out 
by  other  views,  and  as  multitudes  of  the  most  intelligent  and 
sincere  Christians  have  never  been  able  to  receive  the  strict  Lu- 
theran view  of  it,  the  whole  subject  should  be  left  open  to  free 
and  patient  investigation. 

§  10.   TJic  True  Intent  of  Private  Confession  and  Absolution. 

The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  private  confession  and  absolu- 
tion. Luther's  great  interest  in  recommending  and  retaining  it, 
freed,  as  he  thought  it  could  be,  from  the  Romish  abuse  of  it — 
separated,  as  he  thought  it  ought  to  be,  from  its  exclusive  exer- 
cise by  the  priests,  and  remanded  to  the  possession  and  exercise 
of  all  Christians — was  the  fact  that  it  was  a  means  of  applying  the 
declaration  and  pledge  of  prevenient  grace  to  individual  men  on  all 
proper  occasions.  He  seemed  to  regard  it  as  only  one  of  the 
ways  of  preaching  the  gospel,  as  a  means  especially  of  proclaim- 
ing the  gospel  of  gratuitous  justification  to  individuals  zvho  are 
anxious  about  their  personal  salvation.  Some  method  or  measure 
of  this  kind  has  always  been  felt  to  be  important  to  all  who  are 
earnestly  engaged  in  the  work  of  dealing  with  inquiring  souls. 

Men  act,  therefore,  in  the  very  spirit  of  Luther,  and  for  the 
securing  of  the  very  ends,  the  very  interests  which  he  had  in 
view  in  maintaining  private  confession  and  absolution,  when  in 
modern  times — the  mechanical  nature  and  almost  certain  abuse 
of  the  formal  confession  to  the  minister,  and  of  the  official  an- 
nunciation of  absolution,  having  become  manifest  by  experience 
— they,  instead  of  this  method,  encourage  special  conferences 
and  inquiry  meetings,  in  which  the  personal  application  of  the 
proclamation  of  pardoning  grace  and  free  salvation  can  be  made 
individually  to  inquiring  souls,  without  the  danger  of  a  supersti- 
tious dependence  upon  the  official  form.     Luther's  own  explana- 


THE   TRUE    INTENT    OF    PRIVATE    CONFESSION.  465 

tion  of  it  certainly  admits  this  view  of  the  matter.  And  as,  in 
this  hght,  it  is  capable  of  an  evangelical  explanation,  and  as  the 
oricrinal  and  riijht  use  of  it  cannot  be  revived,  and  the  mere 
formal  use  of  it  ought  not  to  be  attempted,  this  application  or 
modification  of  it  ought  to  be  received  as  the  true  Christian  use 
of  it.  Thus,  while  we  drop  the  form,  we  recognize  in  it  the  aim 
— at  all  times  important — of  special  ways  and  methods  of  keep- 
ing before  the  mind  of  the  individual  seeking  salvation  the 
necessity  of  accepting  salvation  as  full  and  free,  of  apprehend- 
ing, in  the  first  instance,  not  some  attitude  which  he  is  to  take 
toward  God,  but  the  attitude  which  God  has  taken  toward  the 
sinner — of  apprehending  "  God  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world 
unto  Himself,  not  imputing  their  trespasses  unto  them,"  of  be- 
lieving "on  Him  who  justifieth  the  ungodly,"  "who  is  just  and 
the  justifier  of  him  that  believeth  on  Jesus."  While  we  lay 
aside  the  form,  therefore,  as  unsuitable,  we  retain  the  spirit  of  it, 
and  apply  it  in  the  light  of  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  and 
of  the  idea  of  the  relations  of  God  and  man  which  are  suggested 
by  it. 

§11.   Church  Government  is  Especially  to  be  Developed  Nozv  and 

Here. 
In  Church  government  the  principle  of  the  Lutheran  Refor- 
mation coidd  not,  in  the  early  history  of  our  Church,  be  fully  ap- 
plied. There  is  here  room  for  free  development ;  for  the  elim- 
ination of  much  that  is  inconsistent  with  the  principle  of  the 
Reformation,  and  for  the  more  complete  appropriation  of  the 
Christian  idea  which  springs  from  it.  Luther  recognized  and 
lamented  the  imperfection  of  the  government  and  discipline  of 
the  Church  in  his  day.  He  complains  in  his  communications 
with  the  Bohemian  and  Moravian  Brethren,  that  he  cannot  bring 
good  morals  and  discipHne  to  bear  among  his  people.  "Church 
discipline  would  be  a  truly  Christian  work,  but  I  do  not  trust 
myself  alone  with  it."  He  says  :  "  I  would  gladly  introduce  it, 
but  it  is  not  yet  time."  He  says  to  the  Bohemian  Brethren : 
"  It  is  yet  early  spring  with  us,  and  things  grow  slowly ;  pray 
for  us  that  God  may  help  us  effectually."  He  deeply  felt  and 
lamented  this  state  of  things.  But  he  also  felt  that  he  could 
not,  in  the  circumstances  in  which  he  was  placed,  organize  the 
Church    in   accordance   zvith  the  principle  of  the  Reformation,  or 


466  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING    THIS    WANT. 

with  safety  to  it.  He  seemed,  consequently,  unwilling  to  make 
the  attempt.  He  left  nearly  all  ecclesiastical  organizing  to  Me- 
lanchthon.  For  himself,  he  preferred  to  wait  until,  by  the  pro- 
gress of  the  gospel,  a  better  preparation  should  have  been  made 
for  the  organization  of  the  Church  according  to  the  idea  sug- 
gested and  required  by  the  principle  of  the  Reformation. 
Hence  the  comparatively  defective  organization  of  the  Lutheran 
Church. 

The  Reformed,  like  the  Waldenses  before  the  Reformation, 
not  dreading  so  much  the  conflict  of  outer  law  with  the  prin- 
ciple of  faith,  at  once  entered  upon  ecclesiastical  organization. 
But  in  the  Lutheran  Church  there  was  a  hesitancy,  arising  from 
the  fear  of  falling  back  into  the  ante-Reformation  legalism. 
There  was,  consequently,  a  much  more  faint  attempt  at  organ- 
ization. But  this  result  has  left  the  way  open  for  the  final 
formation  and  introduction  of  a  form  of  Church  government, 
by  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  which  shall  have  had  the 
advantage  of  centuries  of  experience  by  the  Church  at  large, 
and  in  the  way  which  the  original  Reformers  desired  ;  and  which 
shall,  from  this  circumstance,  be  more  in  accordance  with  the 
principle  and  spirit  of  the  Reformation  than  any  which  could 
have  been  constructed  by  them  or  in  their  day. 

Such  an  achievement  would  be  of  incalculable  importance  at 
this  day  and  in  this  country.  The  progress  of  our  Church  in 
this  respect  seems,  indeed,  to  have  been  slow.  But  we  must 
remember  that,  if  faith  is  to  be  the  source  and  determining 
principle  of  ecclesiastical  government,  it  must  be  so.  If 
we  admitted,  as  freely  as  has  been  done  by  the  Reformed 
churches,  some  elements  of  the  legal  principle,  the  work  would 
not  involve  such  a  slow  process  and  gradual  movement.  It 
would  be  comparatively  easy ;  but  it  would  also  be  correspond- 
ingly imperfect.  We  should  not  be  impatient.  The  Reforma- 
tion is  the  revival  of  Christianity ;  and  its  completion  and  full 
appropriation  will  be  co-etaneous  and  commensurate  with  the 
progress  and  development  of  Christianity  itself  And  especi- 
ally this  work  of  the  realization  and  manifestation  of  the  social 
relations  of  Christianity ;  this  manifestation  in  visible  organiza- 
tion of  the  invisible  Church — the  true  spiritual  kingdom  of 
Christ — requires  time.  The  organization  and  government  of  the 
Church  from  the  principle  of  faith,  though  slow  and  late,  will  be 


THE   TRUE   SOURCE    OF    CHURCH    GOVERNMENT.  467 

the  most  perfect ;  and  it  will  last  the  longest.  We  have  in  this 
one  of  the  grounds  for  the  prospect  of  an  important  future  for 
the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  especially  in  this  country.  It 
is  characteristic  for  developing  everything  from  the  principle  of 
faith ;  and  it  is  certain  that  the  formula  for  the  government  and 
discipline  of  the  Church  will,  at  last,  be  found  to  be  perfect  in 
proportion  to  its  agreement  with  this  great  principle ;  and  to  the 
degree  in  which  it  is  developed  from  the  principle  of  faith,  and 
is  the  result  of  the  experience  of  justification  by  faith  alone.  It 
was  just  because  he  could  not  organize  the  Church  in  the  spirit 
of  this  faith — as  a  development  of  this  principle — that  Luther 
preferred  to  accept,  for  the  time  being,  the  Episcopal  supervision 
of  the  princes,  until,  under  the  protection  thus  afforded  to  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel,  a  people  should  be  produced  who  could 
maintain  Church  government  in  the  spirit  of  faith,  and  with 
entire  consistency  with  "  the  freedom  of  the  Christian  man."  It 
was  this  feeling  that  caused  the  Augsburg  Confession  to  contain 
the  principles  of  true  civil  freedom — as  no  other  creed  before,  or 
at  the  time,  did — the  very  spirit,  indeed,  which  has  been 
adopted  more  and  more  in  modern  times  in  Church  and  State. 
Here  is  a  great  and  glorious  prospect  for  Christians  in  general ; 
and  especially  for  Evangelical  Lutheran  people  in  this  age  and 
in  this  country.  In  this  work,  we  are  perfectly  free,  in  this  age, 
and  especially  in  this  country,  to  carry  out  true  Lutheranism  ; 
and  in  it  we  labor  not  for  ourselves  alone,  but  for  the  whole 
Church  of  Christ.  Any  success  in  such  a  work,  would  exert  a 
blessed  influence  on  all  branches  of  Protestantism,  and  on  the 
interests  of  entire  Christendom. 

§  12.   TJie  Lutheranism  Needed  Nozv  and  in  This  Country. 

Such  a  revival  of  the  great  principle  of  the  Lutheran  Refor- 
mation, in  its  bearings  on  the  apprehension  of  the  doctrine  and 
the  conducting  of  the  operations  of  the  Church,  is  especially 
needed  at  this  day  and  in  this  country.  For  the  salvation  of  the 
CJuaxli  and  the.  State — -for  protection  against  the  inroads  of  super- 
stition and  infidelity — -ive  need  to  be  brought  anew  into  vital  union 
zvith  the  revival  of  evangelical  truth,  zvhich  occurred  in  the  great 
Lutheran  Reformation.  The  want  of  the  day  is  a  true  Evangel- 
ical Lutheranism^ — a  Lutheranism  which  would  be  a  revival  of 
true  Christianity.     We  need  a  Lutheranism  which  should  not 


468  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING    TPIIS    WANT. 

regard  itself  so  much  as  a  Church,  as  the  appropriation  and 
representation  of  the  apostoHc,  primitive  Church,  which  was 
revived  in  the  Reformation  by  Luther ;  not  so  much  as  a  de- 
nomination or  sect  of  Christians,  as  the  resuh  of  the  revival  of 
Christianity,  as  it  finds  its  true  and  complete  expression  in  the 
principle  of  faith  and  the  Word.  It  should  be  the  exhibition 
and  application,  speculatively  and  practically,  of  the  great  prin- 
ciple of  the  Reformation  as  the  central  principle  of  Christianity. 
It  should  be  not  so  much  the  formation  of  a  new  Church,  or  the 
promulgation  of  a  new  doctrine,  as  the  representation  of  the 
old  apostolic  Church,  and  of  the  old  gospel  of  salvation,  the 
primitive  Christianity,  in  the  spirit,  freedom  and  power  of  its 
manifestation  through  the  principle  of  the  great  Lutheran  Ref- 
ormation of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  should  be  a  Lutheranism 
which,  instead  of  spending  all  its  energies  upon  the  peculiarities 
which  distinguish  the  Lutheran  Church  as  an  organism  from 
others,  shall  put  forth  all  its  power  to  preserve  and  apply  the 
positive  principle  of  that  Church,  as  the  principle  of  true  Chris- 
tianity, revived  in  the  Reformation  and  always  the  basis  of  all 
true  churches.  It  should  be  a  Lutheranism  which  would  enable 
us  to  see  how  all  error  in  religion  is  a  departure  or  deviation 
from  the  great  central  principle — the  fact  of  justification  by  faith 
in  Christ  alone,  and  the  practicability  of  certainty  of  truth,  for 
the  individual  Christian  man,  through  the  intelligibility  of  the 
Sacred  Scriptures.  It  should  be  a  Lutheranism  which  would 
enable  us  to  see  this,  whether  it  be  the  fundamental  error  of 
Rome  which  puts  man  in  the  place  of  God,  or  the  non-funda- 
mental one  of  those  who  make  absolute  predestination,  instead 
of  the  gracious  will  of  God  as  manifested  in  the  proclamation 
of  salvation  to  all,  the  prominent  point  in  their  system.  It 
should  enable  us  to  see  this  in  the  error  of  those  who  exalt  the 
human  powers,  the  independence  of  the  will  of  man,  to  the  ex- 
tent of  subordinating  divine  grace ;  as  well  as  in  that  of  those 
who  fail  to  distinguish  between  the  dogma  and  the  living  truth, 
who,  while  they  reject  the  works  of  the  will  of  the  Church  as 
necessary  to  salvation,  would  yet  make  the  works  of  her  intel- 
lect, in  the  production  of  dogmas,  necessary  to  the  belief  of  sav- 
ing truth.  It  should  enable  us  to  see  this  in  the  error  of  those 
who  have  such  confidence  in  the  powers  of  the  human  intellect 
as  would  make  special  revelation  almost,  if  not  entirely,  unnec- 


THE    GREAT   WANT    OF   THE    DAY.  469 

essary,  and  who,  thus,  ignore  the  distinctive  character  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  as  well  as  in  that  of  those  who  make  the  doctrine  of 
the  means  of  grace  so  prominent  as  to  lose  sight  of  the  efficient 
acfent  in  the  work  of  grace,  as  to  confound  the  influence  of 
the  Spirit  with  the  force  of  the  Word  and  Sacraments,  as 
almost  to  deny  the  necessity  of  living  faith,  and  of  superadded, 
immediate  operations  of  God ;  in  short,  the  error  of  those  who 
attach  so  great  a  significancy  to  the  Word  and  Sacraments,  as  to 
abolish  the  immediateness  of  the  operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  the  work  of  regeneration  and  sanctification. 

The  great  want  of  the  day  is  a  Lutheranism  which,  while  it 
enables  us  to  avoid  all  dependence  upon  any  magical  effect  of 
the  means  of  grace,  shall  also,  in  the  light  of  the  principle  of 
the  Reformation,  guard  us  against  all  tendency  to  neglect  their 
importance  and  necessity — their  importance  as  the  appointed 
instrumentality  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  their  necessity  for  con- 
necting us  with  the  "Christ  out  of  us,"  and  His  gracious  "work 
for  us,"  in  His  atoning  death  ;  for  preserving  the  union  of  the 
Christ  "in  us"  with  the  Christ  "for  us;  "  for  securing  the  con- 
nection of  the  historical  fact  of  Christianity  and  the  spiritual  ex- 
perience of  its  power  in  our  religious  life.  We  need  a  Luther- 
anism which  shall  enable  us  duly  to  estimate  the  vital  parts  of 
the  Christian  religion,  as  well  as  clearly  to  see  the  subordination, 
even  in  the  revelation  itself,  of  all  the  other  parts,  so  as  to  dis- 
tinguish the  essential  from  the  non-essential,  as  to  avoid  all 
exclusiveness  within  the  clear  limits  of  fundamentals,  and*  at  the 
same  time  so  deeply  to  feel  the  absolute  necessity  of  faith  in 
these  fundamentals  for  the  preservation  and  the  growth  of  the 
Church,  that  we  shall  hate  and  shun  all  unevangelical  latitudin- 
arianism.  And  such  a  Lutheranism  is  practicable.  It  could 
afford  to  modify,  or,  at  least,  to  regard  as  non-fundamental,  all 
the  points  which  distinguish  our  Church  from  other  evangelical 
denominations  ;  for  it  would  still  have  its  great  heart-principle 
undisturbed,  and  could  use  it  as  determinative  of  all  the  parts 
of  the  doctrinal  system.  If  Calvinism  gave  up  absolute  predes- 
tination, or  Arminianism  conditional  election,  each  of  them 
would  abandon  the  centre  of  its  system.  But  Lutheranism  is  no 
such  mere  adoption  or  rejection  of  Augustinianism.  She  could 
waive  or  subordinate  all  that  which  has  separated  the  Lutheran 
Church  from  the  reformed  Churches  without  touching  the  ereat 


470  THE    PRACTICABILITY    OF    MEETING    THIS    WANT. 

centre  of  her  life.  She  would  still  be  the  mother  of  them  all. 
In  such  a  work  she  would  only  make  the  more  prominent  the 
great  principle  in  which  all  evangelical  Christians  have  ever 
agreed  with  her,  from  the  day  in  which  she  first  discovered  it 
and  announced  it  to  them.  She  would  appear  the  manifestation 
of  Christianity,  as  revived  in  the  principle  of  the  Reformation, 
and  the  bond  of  union  among  all  true  believers  in  Christ. 

The  true  Lutheranism,  therefore,  is  not  that  which  exhausts 
itself  in  efforts  to  maintain  unchanged  the  forms  of  its  system 
of  doctrines,  but  that  which  labors  ever  in  the  spirit  of  the  great 
fundamental  conception  of  the  Church — the  idea  of  personal 
assurance  of  salvation  through  faith  in  Christ  alone,  with  the 
Word  of  God  alone  as  its  criterion  and  rule — the  conception 
which  has,  during  all  her  conflicts  with  others,  and  in  all  the 
forms  of  her  own  thought  and  action,  been  struggling  to  come 
to  more  and  more  complete  expression.  If  Lutheranism  could, 
now,  have  the  same  confidence  in  the  power  of  the  truth,  just  as 
it  is  revealed  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  in  its  intelligibility  "  in  all 
things  necessary  for  the  Christian  man  to  know,"  which  it  had 
in  what  Seckendorf  calls  "the  seven  blessed  first  years  of  the 
Reformation,"  there  would  be  on  a  large  scale  a  similar  union 
and  rejoicing  of  minds  and  hearts  in  the  Protestant  Christian 
world.  She  has,  as  we  have  seen,  already  done  something  of 
this,  through  the  agency  of  the  General  Synod,  in  the  work  of 
Christian  union.  And  she  is  destined  to  do  still  more  of  this 
blessed  work.  No  Christians  can  be  expected  to  have  more  of 
this  confidence  in  truth.  For,  while  there  has  been  a  breaking 
up  of  so  many  of  the  old  forms  of  doctrine  among  all  churches, 
the  great  principle  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation — the  principle 
which  she  has  always  recognized  as  that  by  which  the  Church 
must  stand  or  fall — has  been  more  and  more  appropriated  ;  and 
it  now  stands  forth,  in  all  the  grandeur  of  its  simplicity  and 
truth,  as  the  all-determining  heart  and  centre  of  the  Christian 
Church  and  life. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

THE  TRUE  PRINCIPLE  OF  DIVISION  IN  THE  SYSTEM  OF  EVANGEL- 
ICAL LUTHERAN  THEOLOGY,  AS  IT  APPEARS  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF 
THE    CHRISTIAN    IDEA,    THUS    APPREHENDED. 

^  I.  A  Sketcli  of  Divisions  Independently  of  This  Determining 

Principle. 

The  word  theology,  according  to  its  etymology  a  discourse 
concerning  God,  used  by  the  ancient  heathen  to  designate  writ- 
ings respecting  the  genealogy  and  exploits  of  their  gods,  is  not 
found  in  the  New  Testament — the  word  -^sa'Aoyog  in  the  inscrip- 
tion of  the  Apocalypse  being  evidently  put  there  not  by  John 
himself,  but  by  another  hand,  and  at  a  later  day.  In  the  New 
Testament,  the  terms  yvdair  and  aopia  are  employed  to  express 
the  deeper  and  m.ore  scientific  knowledge  of  religion.  In  the 
earlier  systems  yvuaic  was  used  to  designate  the  more  specula- 
tive, and  T^i-oTiQ  the  more  popular  knowledge  of  Christianity. 
The  word  theology  was  not  introduced  into  Christian  literature 
until  the  second  century  of  the  Church,  and  then  it  was  applied 
mainly  to  discussions  concerning  the  divinity  of  Christ.  Thus 
in  allusion  to  the  Logos  of  John  in  the  New  Testament,  men 
began  to  call  the  doctrine  of  the  divinity  of  Christ,  theology  ; 
and  as  John  was  supposed  especially  to  represent  the  divinity 
of  Christ,  he  was  called  ^eoTmyoq.  In  contradistinction  to  this 
word,  the  term  u'lKovouia  was  applied  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
human  nature  and  Messiahship  of  Christ.  Gradually  the  word 
theology  began  to  be  used  to  designate  systematic  instruction  in 
the  Christian  religion ;  and  at  length,  after  the  example  of  Abe- 
lard,  who  called  his  principal  work  Theologia  Christiana,  it  be- 
gan to  be  used  to  designate  a  scientific  exhibition  of  the  doc- 
trines of  Christianity.  But  still  it  was  long  applied  mainly  to 
the  doctrine  and  discussions  of  the  Trinity. 

Since  the  Reformation  two  methods — the  synthetic  and  the 
analytic — have  been  employed  in  the  discussion  and  division  of 
theology ;  the  former  mainly  before  and  the   latter  principally 

(470 


472  THE    ONLY   TRUE    PRINCIPLE    OF    DIVISION. 

since  the  days   of  Calixtus,  who   introduced   it.     They  divided 
theology  according  to  the  various  points  of  view.     Viewed  in 
its  relation   to   the  understanding  and   the  will,   it   was   divided 
into  credenda  and  agenda,  things  to  be  believed  and  things  to 
be  done.     In  reference  to   the  source  of  our   knowledge   or  the 
principiinn  cognoscendi,  it  was  divided  into  natural  and   revealed 
theology;  from   the  subject,    into   archetypical   or   original,  and 
typical  or  derived  ;  the  former  the  knowledge  which  God  has  of 
Himself;    the  latter,  the    knowledge  which   creatures   have  of 
Him.     And  as  creatures  are  divided  into  angels  and  men,  it  was 
divided  into  the  theology  of  angels  and  the   theology  of  men; 
and  as  angels  are  divided  into  good  angels  and  bad  angels,  it 
was  divided  into  the  theology  of  good  angels  and  bad  angels, 
or  more  briefly,  into  the  theology  of  angels  and  the  theology 
of  devils.     And,  as   men  existed  before  and   after  the   fall,  the 
theology  of  men  was   divided   into  tJieologiavi  aiitclapsaui  and 
theologiavt  postlapsain ;    and    as   since    the    fall    some    of  these 
are   regenerate   and  others  unregenerate,  into  the  theology  of 
the  regenerate  and  the  theology  of  the  unregenerate ;    and   as 
the  former    are    some    in    their    pilgrimage,   still    on  their  way 
to   heaven,  "  walking  by  faith   and   not  by  sight,"  while  others 
are  already  "in  heaven  beholding  the  face  of  God," — into  the 
theology  of  the  way  and  the  theology  of  vision.     So  from  the 
end   or   object   of  theology,  they  divided   it   into   doctrinal   and 
practical  theology.     Finally,  from  the  mode  of  treating  it,  they 
derived  the  divisions  into  polemic,  symbolic,  casuistic,  exegeti- 
cal,  catechetical,  etc.     These  divisions  have  been  superseded  by 
those  which  we  have  noticed  in  the  introduction,  but  it  is  still 
important,  in  the  study  of  theology,  to  look  at  the  subject  from 
these  points  of  view.     It  was  long  a  question  in  modern   times 
whether  the  word  should  be  used  as  the  name  of  the  whole  sys- 
tem, or  should  be  limited  to  the  designation  of  the  doctrine  con- 
cerning  God.       At   length,    in  the    division  of  theology,   first, 
generically  into  Historical,   Exegetical,   Systematic,  and  Practi- 
cal   Theology;    and    then,   specifically,   in    dividing  Systematic 
Theology  into  Dogmatics  and  Ethics,  one  of  the  topics  of  Dog- 
matics, namely,  God,  is  again  designated  theology,  or  theology 
proper. 

The  science  has  also  been  considered — and  this  applies  espe- 
cially to  systematic  theology — from  the  standpoint  of  the  object 


UNSATISFACTORY    METHODS    OF    DIVISION.  473 

and  of  the  subject,  that  is,  the  truth  as  it  is  in  itself  without  the 
human  mind,  or  the  truth  as  it  is  already  apprehended  by  the 
mind.  That  theology  may  be  thus  objectively  and  subjectively 
considered,  is  manifest,  but  it  is  not  properly  a  division  of  the 
system  itself,  as  it  may  be  applied  to  every  part  of  it.  It  applies 
rather  to  the  difference  in  the  manner  in  which  men  apprehend 
the  truth,  such  as  the  difference  between  the  theology  of  the  re- 
generate and  the  unregenerate,  and  the  difference  between  a 
purely  Biblical  and  a  systematic  theology ;  the  former  being 
more  objective,  the  latter  more  subjective.  So  the  definition  of 
revealed  theology,  as  the  system  of  doctrines  which  is  contained 
in  the  Bible,  is  defective  for  the  reason  that  the  Scriptures  are 
the  pniicipinin  cognosccndi  of  revealed  theology,  and  not  the 
system  of  it.  This  mode  has  now,  consequently,  at  least  in 
Germany,  been  distinguished  from  systematic  theology,  and  is 
now  called  Biblical  Theology.  The  distinguished  Dr.  Beck 
and  others  have,  indeed,  revived  this  definition  by  their  method 
of  attaining,  in  a  genetic  way,  the  system  contained  in  the  Bible, 
as  the  true  system  of  theology.  But  still,  whatever  may  be  the 
merits  of  this  theology,  it  is  more  appropriately  called  Biblical 
than  Systematic  Theology.  Others  still,  speaking  of  it  as  re- 
vealed theology,  define  it  as  the  artificial  connection  of  those 
truths  which  God  has  revealed  for  the  salvation  of  men  in  the 
Books  which  He  has  inspired,  or  those  truths  which  He  has  re- 
vealed for  the  salvation  of  the  soul  arranged  in  systematic  order. 
This,  like  all  these  methods,  fails  to  make  the  experience  of  sal- 
vation, as  independent  of  the  science,  the  starting-point  in  the- 
ology, and  does  not,  consequently,  give  a  satisfactory  division. 

§  2.   TJic  Piciistic  Approximation  to  the  True  Principle  of  Division. 

The  Pietists  made  experience  the  starting-point  in  theology; 
but  they  did  not  sufficiently  distinguish  the  specific  experience 
in  justification  by  faith  in  Christ  alone,  as  that  which  has  cer- 
tainty in  it,  from  the  mere  general  Christian  experience.  They 
insisted  that  "  experience  must  precede  scientific  knowledge;" 
that  "the  doctrines  of  the  Bible  must  be  felt  in  order  to  be  un- 
derstood." Non  intclligo  nt  credam,  sed  credo  2it  intelligam — 
the  motto  of  Anselm — was  heartily  adopted  by  them.  They 
said  :  ''We  must  believe  that  we  may  experience,  and  experience 
that  we  may  know."     This  was,  indeed,  a  turning-point  in  the 


474  THE    ONLY   TRUE    PRINCIPLE    OF    DIVISION. 

Study  of  theology,  a  return  to  the  principle  of  the  Reformation, 
and  contributed  greatly  to  the  true  method  of  conducting  the 
process  in  a  systematic  theology.  But  they  differed  from  the 
principle  of  the  Reformation  in  this,  that  what  this  principle  in- 
culcates, is  the  assurance  of  personal  salvation,  as  especially  the 
matter  of  experience,  zvhich  must  precede  science  ;  and  not  the  ex- 
perience which  we  may  have  of  the  salutary  effect  of  the  differ- 
ent doctrines  taught  in  the  Bible.  They  overlooked  the  fact 
that  the  Bible  contains  truths  which  cannot  be  experienced, 
that  are  beyond  the  reach  of  all  human  experience,  and  which 
can  still  be  recognized  as  true  on  the  testimony  of  God  ;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  faith — saving  faith — contains  elements 
which  no  kind  of  knowledge  in  itself  alone  contains.  They  did 
not,  in  their  attempt  at  the  preservation  of  the  unity  of  experi- 
ence and  speculation,  of  experimental  and  scientific  knowledge, 
sufficiently  distinguish  the  subjective  from  the  objective — the 
knowledge  of  faith,  which  includes  also  elements  other  than  the 
knowledge  which  is  gained  even  by  the  mere  intellectual  study 
of  the  Bible.  The  distinction  lies  in  this,  that  faith,  on  the  one 
hand,  includes,  subjectively,  elements  of  feeling  and  volition,  in 
addition  to  elements  of  knowledge  ;  and,  thus,  more  than  bibli- 
cal knowledge  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  biblical  knowledge 
objectively  contains  more  than  is  included  in  the  knowledge 
which  is  an  element  of  faith — things  that  are  received  by  faith 
without  the  element  of  knowledge.  The  point  of  their  union 
is  that  the  knowledge  of  faith  springs  from  the  experience  of 
the  great  central  fact  in  the  history  of  redemption,  which  is  re- 
corded in  the  Bible;  and,  consequently,  the  idea  involved  in  faith 
is  confirmed  by  biblical  knowledge  (and  no  idea  involved  in 
faith,  not  so  confirmed,  is  an  element  of  true  faith)  and  increased 
in  extent  in  proportion  to  our  attainments  in  that  biblical  knowl- 
edge. The  knowledge  that  is  an  element  of  saving  faith,  may 
be  regarded  as  the  subjective  idea,  which  is  verified  by  the 
Bible,  is  found  to  be  in  agreement  with  the  great  objective  law 
of  the  facts  of  redemption,  as  it  is  discovered  by  investigation 
and  exposition  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  The  center  of  both — 
of  faith  and  the  Bible,  of  subjective  experience  and  objective 
revelation,  of  the  subjective  idea  and  the  objective  law, — is  Christ, 
the  living  Christ,  the  Christ  whom  the  Bible  reveals,  and  the 
Christ  who,  by  the  power  of  the  gospel  and  the  influence  and 


THE    PIETISTS    AND    SCHLEIERMACHER.  475 

witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  produces  saving  faith  and  the  assur- 
ance of  salvation  in  our  hearts — the  Christ  "  out  of  us,"  and  the 
Christ  "  in  us."  But  each  of  these,  the  subjective  idea  and  the 
objective  law,  contains  elements  which  the  other  does  not.  They 
are  in  agreement,  but  they  are  not  commensurate;  they  are,  as 
we  have  seen,  in  a  measure  independent,  and  yet  they  are  insep- 
arably united,  the  latter  enlarging,  verifying,  and  correcting  the 
former  as  the  source  of  its  purification,  growth  and  power.  The 
Pietists  failed  to  distinguish  between  the  special  experience  of  the 
assurance  of  salvation — the  peculiar  certainty  of  the  truth  of  the 
great  ce7ttral  fact  of  Christianity — ajid  the  experience  of  the  power 
of  other  truths  and  facts  zuhich  are  not  so  immediately  necessary 
to  salvation,  and  of  zvhich  zee  have  not  such  experience  of  certainty, 
but  only  the  testimony  of  another,  though  that  testimony  be 
that  of  God,  and,  consequently,  a  sufficient  basis  of  faith  with- 
out personal  experience  of  the  truth — between  the  certainty  of 
the  peace  of  God  which  is  experienced,  and  that,  for  instance,  of 
the  trinity  of  the  Godhead,  which  is  believed  on  divine  testimony 
zvithout  experience. 

§  3.  Imperfect  Appropriation  of  it  by  Schleiermacher. 

Schleiermacher  distinguished  the  Christian  consciousness  as  a 
special  experience ;  but  he  failed  to  distinguish  between  the  cer- 
tainty of  the  fact  and  that  of  the  idea — failed  to  see  that  even 
an  idea,  springing  from  the  certainty  of  this  particular  experi- 
ence, may  be  a  mere  seeming  unless  it  be  found  in  agreement 
with  an  objective  law  of  the  facts  in  general,  of  which  this  ex- 
perience includes  but  a  part.  He  failed  to  see  that  the  Christian 
consciousness  is  itself  a  product — is  the  human  consciousness 
determined  by  facts,  which  belong  to  a  world  of  realities  lying 
outside  of  the  field  of  experience,  beyond  the  sphere  of  even 
the  Christian  consciousness, — and  that,  consequently,  the  idea 
derived  from  the  Christian  consciousness,  must  find  its  verifica- 
tion in  the  Bible.  He  made  theology  to  be  only  the  develop- 
ment of  what  is  involved  in  the  Christian's  faith — the  exposition 
of  the  Christian  consciousness.  He  made  Christ — the  Christ 
"  in  us  " — the  starting  point,  but  he  did  not  feel  the  necessity  of 
finding  the  Christ  "  out  of  us,"  as  in  agreement  with  the  Christ 
"  in  us,"  of  having  the  historical  Christ,  as  well  as  the  ideal 
Christ.     He  went  back,  indeed,  to  the  principle  of  the  Reforma- 


47^  THE    ONLY   TRUE    PRINCIPLE    OF    DIVISION. 

tion,  but  he  took  only  its  material  aspect.  We  must  now  take 
the  formal  phase  also.  We  must,  on  the  one  hand,  have  the 
subjective  idea — the  idea  arising  from  the  exposition  of  the 
Christian  consciousness,  from  the  evolution  of  what  is  involved 
in  the  experience  of  assurance  of  salvation — but  we  must,  on 
the  other  hand,  have  this  idea  verified  by  the  objective  law  of 
the  facts  of  redemption,  found  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  It  is 
not  enough  to  ask  what  are  the  presuppositions  of  the  Christian 
consciousness  ;  we  must  find  these  presuppositions  to  be  reali- 
ties revealed  by  God  and  recorded  in  His  Word.  The  defect  of 
the  pietistic  idea  of  the  experience  of  truth,  which  consisted  in 
its  failing  to  distinguish  the  specific  experience — the  experience 
of  the  gospel  as  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  through  faith  in 
Christ  aloiu\  and  to  make  the  idea  necessarily  arising  from  the 
fact  of  justification  by  faith,  the  subjective  idea  of  the  system  of 
Christian  truth — must  be  avoided.  But  we  should  be  equally  on 
our  guard  against  the  defect  of  the  method  which  would  be 
content  with  the  mere  deduction  from  the  Christian  consciousness, 
of  its  presuppositions,  zvithout  feeling  the  necessity  of  verifying 
these  ideas  by  the  teachings  of  the  sacred  volume.  An  ob- 
jective law  in  correlation  with  our  subjective  idea  must  be 
found,  must  be  the  result  of  the  exposition  of  the  Scriptures  ; 
or  we  cannot  be  said  to  have  a  theology,  though  we  may  have 
religion.  W^e  must  take  each  point  and  test  it  by  the  light  of 
the  inspired  volume.  We  must  develop  the  ideas  zvhich  spring 
from  experience  under  the  material  principle — -justification  by  faith 
— /;/  the  light  of  the  formal  principle — the  Sacred  Scriptures  as 
the  only  infallible  standai-d  of  Christian  truth. 

The  process  will  involve,  on  the  one  hand,  the  exposition  of 
saving  futh  or  the  Christian  consciousness,  the  development  of 
the  subjective  ideas  arising  from  it;  and  on  the  other  the  verifi- 
cation of  them  by  the  exposition  of  the  facts  or  acts  of  divine 
revelation  recorded  in  the  Bible — the  discovery  of  the  objective 
law  of  the  facts  concerning  God  and  man,  and  their  relations  to 
each  other  as  given  in  the  Scriptures.  It  will  be  the  verification, 
not  of  the  material  principle  itself — for  this  is  independent  of 
science — but  of  its  presuppositions — of  the  ideas,  suggested  by 
it.  If  the  result  be  an  agreement  of  the  subjective  ideas  and  the 
objective  laws,  we  have  an  inductive  science  of  theology. 


THE   APPLICATION    OF    THE    TRUE    PRINCIPLE.  477 

§  4.   The  Application  of  this  Principle  in  the  Method  of  Division. 

Thus  we  may  ask  what  is  involved  in  sin  and  grace  as  they 
are  experienced  in  saving  faith,  and  in  this  way  derive  ideas  from 
the  Christian  consciousness.  The  experience  of  justification  by 
faith,  is  the  experience  of  the  guilt  of  sin,  and  of  the  freeness 
of  grace.  From  this  we  may  ascend  to  such  presuppositions  as 
these,  namely,  objectively:  the  reality  of  sin  as  sin,  else  there 
would  have  been  no  necessity  of  an  atonement  for  sin,  and  there 
could  be  no  gratuitous  justification,  thus  excluding  all  mere 
naturalistic  explanations  of  sin.  We  may  apprehend  sin  as  uni- 
versal, or  there  would  have  been  no  absolute  necessity  of 
redemption,  thus  excluding  all  Pelagianism ;  sin  as  not  eternal, 
or  it  could  never  be  overcome  by  redemption ;  thus  shutting  out 
Manichaeism.  We  would  have  also  the  presupposition  of  a 
primitive  sinless  state,  or  man  would  not  be  a  fallen  being,  would 
not  need  a  special  Saviour.  Where  there  is  no  possibility  of 
sin,  there  can  be  no  possibility  of  salvation.  The  guilt  of  sin 
involves  the  personality  of  man,  or  he  could  not  have  fallen, 
thus  excluding  all  mere  Naturalism  ;  it  involves  also  the  fact 
that  he  is  the  creature  of  a  personal  Creator,  thus  excluding  all 
Pantheism  ;  and  the  reality  of  a  divine  providence,  thus  exclud- 
ing all  Deism.  Grace  involves,  objectively,  the  doctrine  of  the 
person  of  the  Saviour  as  divine,  supernatural,  or  we  could  not 
have  the  consciousness  of  being  delivered  by  Him  from  the 
bondage  of  nature,  thus  shutting  out  all  Ebionistic  views ;  and, 
as  human,  or  he  could  not  be  the  Head  -of  the  human  race, 
could  not  make  His  life  our  life,  thus  excluding  all  Gnostic 
Idealism.  It  involves  as  presuppositions,  .special  divine  influ- 
ences ;  regenerating,  sanctifying,  witnessing,  assuring ;  and 
means  of  grace,  divine  revelation,  supernatural  power  and 
supernatural  knowledge,  word  of  God,  pledges  of  grace  ;  and  as 
results,  the  Saviour's  kingdom — of  nature,  grace  and  glory.  Jus- 
tification involves,  subjectively,  repentance  of  sin,  striving  after 
holiness  of  heart  and  life,  the  spirit  of  adoption,  of  affiliation; 
filial  fear,  love,  hope  ;  and  grace  involves,  objectively,  illumina- 
tion, conviction,  conversion  of  the  sinner. 

All  these  presupjiositions  are  ideas  which  may  be  deduced 
from  the  experience  involved  in  saving  faith.  But  they  are  only 
ideas,  and  to  become  science  tJiey  must  be  found  to  be  ideas  of  reali- 
ties, and,  consequently,  they  must  be  verified  by  the  revelation  of  tlie 


4yS  THE    ONLY   TRUE    PRINCIPLE    OF    DIVISION. 

facts  of  redemption,  of  which  the  Bible  is  the  depository.  Just  as 
in  the  natural  sciences,  the  inductive  method  requires  us  to 
verify  our  hypothesis  by  induction  of  facts ;  so  here  we  must 
take  our  subjective  ideas,  whatever  they  may  be,  and  inquire 
whether  they  be  in  harmony  with  the  great  law  of  the  facts  in 
each  case,  as  it  is  disclosed  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  From  the 
experience  of  the  reality  of  sin  and  guilt,  we  derive  an  idea,  the 
truth  of  which  we  must  try  by  what  the  Bible  says  and  implies 
concerning  the  world  as  without  sin,  and  what  it  declares 
respecting  the  world  with  sin  in  it.  From  the  experience  of 
forgiveness  of  sin — of  free  salvation,  we  deduce  ideas,  but  these 
ideas  must  be  tested  by  what  the  Scriptures  say  of  Redemp- 
tion, etc. 

We  may  have  thus:  First,  an  Agatlwlogy  ;  God,  the  Sovereign 
Good ;  His  Nature,  embracing,  the  Idea  of  God,  Knowableness 
of  God,  Belief  in  God,  Proofs  of  the  Divine  Existence,  the 
Divine  Attributes,  the  Trinity  of  the  Godhead  ;  the  Works  of 
God,  His  Decrees,  or  Plan  of  the  World,  Creation,  embracing 
Angels,  Man  ;  Divine  Providence,  embracing  the  Preservation 
and  Government  of  the  things  made — all  "  good,"  "  very  good." 
Secondly,  a  Haniartology ;  Sin,  in  its  Nature  as  originated  by 
the  Creature  ;  its  Guilt  and  Condemnation ;  its  Origin  in  the 
world  of  Spirits,  Doctrine  of  Angels,  Fall  of  Angels,  Devils, 
Satan ;  its  Origin  in  Man  ;  the  Temptation,  the  Fall,  Natural 
Depravity,  Imputation,  Actual  Sins,  Degrees  and  Punishment 
of  Sin.  Thirdly,  a  Soterology ;  The  Gracious  Purpose  of  God 
to  save  Man  ;  embracing  The  Person  of  Christ :  His  divine 
Nature,  The  Eternal  Logos,  Mediator  of  all  Revelation — of  God 
to  Himself  in  the  Eternal  Trinity,  to  Creatures  in  Creation  and 
Redemption;  Mediator  in  the  divine  works,  between  Creator- 
ship  and  creatureship  in  Creation ;  in  Providence,  conducting 
all  things  to  perfect  union  of  God  and  His  moral  creatures — 
would,  perhaps,  as  the  most  perfect  revelation  of  God  and  as 
necessary  to  the  attainment  of  the  goal  of  creation,  have  become 
incarnate  even  if  man  had  not  sinned — but  the  entrance  of  sin 
did  not  deter  Him  from  coming — though  it  had  to  be  an  advent 
of  inconceivably  great  suffering — amazing  love!  did  not  deter 
Him  from  becoming  man.  We  have  also  in  this  divine  revela- 
tion, in  redemption.  His  Human  Nature;  real,  our  brother  as 
well  as  our  Lord;  the  union  of  the  Two  Natures  in  The  One  Per- 


HOW    IT    MAY    BE    APPLIED.  479 

son ;  the  States  of  Christ,  His  Humiliation,  His  Exaltation ; 
the  Works  of  Christ;  Prophetical,  Priestly,  Kingly.  Then  we 
have,  fourthly,  Soteriology ,  The  Appropriation  of  The  Saviour's 
Work;  The  offices  of  The  Holy  Ghost,  Vocation,  Illumination, 
Regeneration,  Sanctification,  Assurance  of  Salvation  ;  Means  of 
Grace,  The  Word,  Sacraments,  Providence,  Prayer.  Fifthly, 
Ecclesiology ;  Experience  of  Salvation;  of  the  Individual;  Re- 
pentance, Faith,  Hope,  Love,  Consolation  in  Affliction,  Death, 
Intermediate  State ;  of  Society :  Church  invisible,  consisting 
of  all  believers  scattered  throughout  the  world ;  The  Vis- 
ible Church,  The  Administration  of  Word  and  Sacraments ; 
Special  Ministry,  Church  Government  and  Discipline,  Spiritual 
Reign  of  Christ;  Second  Advent,  Resurrection  of  The  Just.  Uni- 
versal Kingdom  of  Christ.  Sixthly,  Eschatology ;  Death  in  gen- 
eral, General  Resurrection,  Final  Judgment,  Eternal  Retribution. 

By  this  we  wish  only  to  indicate  what  we  regard  the  true 
method  for  an  Evangelical  Lutheran  Theology ;  namely,  to  take 
the  ideas  of  Sin  and  Grace  as  they  spring  from  the  experience  of 
justification  by  faith  in  Christ  alone — the  ideas  of  the  union  of 
God  and  man,  of  the  Holy  "  God  in  Christ  reconciling  the  sin- 
ful world  unto  Himself,  not  imputing  their  trespasses  unto  them," 
of  sinful  but  penitent  man,  accepting  this  revelation  of  the  gra- 
cious God  and  surrendering  himself  to  Him  in  Christ, — to  take 
the  ideas  derived  from  the  apprehension  of  the  point  of  union 
between  grace  and  faith — of  the  new  life  of  God  in  the  soul — 
to  take  the  ideas  of  Sin  and  Grace  thus  arising  from  the  Chris- 
tian's experience  and  comparing  them,  fiist,  with  the  declara- 
tions of  the  Augsburg  Confession;  secondly,  with  the  expres- 
sions of  the  Christian  Consciousness  of  the  Church  in  general; 
thirdly,  with  the  teachings,  of  the  Bible  as  decisive — with  the 
Sacred  Scriptures  as  the  final  appeal.  The  grand  question  must 
be,  Are  the  ideas  involved  in  our  experience,  corroborated  by 
the  objective  inspired  revelation  of  saving  truth?  Then,  fourthly, 
we  may  compare  them  with  the  results  of  science  and  philoso- 
phy. Our  ideas  verified  by  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  thus  become 
a  Christian  science — a  science  of  the  Christian  faith,  a  true  The- 
ology. 

At  the  same  time,  much  that  is  not  the  subject  of  our  expe- 
rience, yet  belongs  to  this  salvation,  and  is  found  in  the  Sacred 
Volume.     This  must  also  be  studied.     So  also  the  relations  of 


480  THE    ONLY   TRUE    PRINCIPLE    OF    DIVISION. 

the  scheme  of  redemption  to  angels  and  to  nature,  to  the  world 
of  spirits  and  the  world  of  nature,  must  be  noticed — the  cos- 
mical  relations  of  Christ  as  well  His  saving  work — His  "  reconcil- 
ing all,  whether  they  be  things  in  earth  or  things  in  heaven." 
The  great  characteristic  of  this  method  is  that  it  does  not  take 
any  one  doctrine  of  tlic  system  as  the  controlling  principle  for  the 
division,  but  a  principle  that  is  independent  of  the  system — the 
fact  of  justification  by  faith  in  Christ  alone,  communion  with 
God  in  Christ  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  through  faith,  as 
a  matter  of  experience,  and  as  suggesting  the  ideas,  the  verifi- 
cation of  which  constitutes  the  process  of  the  science  of  the- 
ology. The  principle  is  not  found  in  God  alone,  nor  in  man 
alone,  but  in  the  union  of  God  and  man ;  and  the  point  of  this 
union  is  justification  by  faith  as  a  fact,  in  which  there  is  a  real 
union  of  God  and  man  by  the  operation  of  grace  on  the  part  of 
God,  and  the  receptivity  of  faith  on  the  part  of  man  ;  and  the 
result,  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

§  5.    The  Advantages  of  this  Method  of  Division. 

In  this  way  we  escape  the  difficulties  which  attend  the  very 
best  divisions  when  some  one  doctrine  of  the  system  itself  becomes 
the  principle  of  division. 

The  arrangement  and  division  of  the  materials  of  systematic 
theology  are,  in  the  prevalent  mode  of  division,  inevitably  de- 
pendent 7/pon  the  fundamental  dogmatic  view.  And  it  is  by  no 
means  a  matter  of  indifference  in  what  relation  the  individual 
articles  of  our  system  are  placed  to  one  another,  and  how  they 
are  made  to  bear  upon  the  sum-total  of  Christian  truth.  All 
divisions  of  this  kind  have  difficulties  which  may  be,  in  some 
measure,  obviated  by  the  method  here  proposed.  A  glance  at 
some  of  the  best  of  these  divisions  will  confirm  this. 

Thus,  as  the  doctrine  of  the  person  of  Christ,  the  Son  of  God 
and  the  son  of  man,  as  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  is  the  funda- 
mental article  of  Christianity,  it  has  been  regarded  as  the  centre 
of  the  theological  system,  as  the  doctrine  in  the  light  of  which 
all  other  doctrines  should  be  treated,  either  as  they  are  neces- 
sarily presupposed,  or  as  they  inevitably  follow  as  a  conse- 
quence from  it.  Hence  some  propose  to  make  the  person  of 
Christ  the  first  topic  in  the  division  of  theology.  But  if  the 
person   of  Christ   is   to   be    understood,   the   discussion   of  the 


DIFFICULTIES    OF    OTHER    METHODS    AVOIDED.  48 1 

divine  nature  and  of  human  nature  must  precede  it,  for  this 
person  is  both  divine  and  human.  Hence  the  topic  of  theology 
proper,  which  is  the  discussion  concerning  God,  His  being,  the 
proofs  of  His  existence.  His  attributes,  works,  providence ;  and 
that  of  anthropology,  which  treats  of  man,  his  nature  and  rela- 
tions, must  have  priority  in  the  system.  Christology,  therefore, 
cannot  properly  be  the  principle  of  division.  Only  when  Christ 
is  regarded  _;?ri"/  as  the  object  of  faith  independently  of  the  system, 
is  the  feeling  of  the  prominence  which  His  Person  should  have 
in  our  view  fully  satisfied.  We  innst  first  have  the  idea  derived 
from  the  experience  of  the  saving  faith  produced  by  the  gospe/,  as 
the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  under  the  influence  of  His 
Holy  Spirit,  and  then,  carry  tins  idea  into  the  light  of  the  sacred 
Scripture,  in  search  there  of  the  objective  lazv  of  the  facts  of  the 
plan  and  work  of  salvation — part  of  which  only  we  have  expe- 
rienced in  justification  by  faith — in  order  to  see  whether  our 
subjective  idea  and  this  objective  law  are  in  correlation  ;  and, 
thus,  whether  we  have  a  science  of  faith,  a  theology.  Then,  and 
only  then,  the  doctrine  of  the  Person  of  Christ  zuill properly  be  seen 
in  the  prominence,  zvhich  is  attempted,  in  vain,  by  the  method  of 
making  it  the  principle  of  the  division  of  the  system. 

So  while  the  usual  order  has  been  to  discuss  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity  and  that  respecting  the  Decrees  of  God  in  immediate 
connection  with,  and  as  a  part  of,  theology  proper,  that  is,  of  the 
doctrine  concerning  God ;  some  have  objected  to  this  order,  for 
the  reason  that  these,  doctrines  can  only  be  properly  appreciated 
after  others  have  been  treated  of;  and  they  have  preferred  to 
place  the  doctrines  of  the  divine  Trinity  and  the  divine  Decrees 
at  the  end  of  the  system.  But  this  seems  also  to  be  a  defective 
view,  because  the  decrees  or  the  plan  of  God  are  inseparable 
from  the  idea  of  God ;  and  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  has  by 
others  been  regarded  as  manifestly  underlying  the  whole  struc- 
ture of  Christianity.  So  much  is  this  the  case  that  many  of  the 
greatest  theologians,  such  as  Calvin,  Martensen,  Kahnis,  divide 
the  system  in  the  order  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Father,  and  of 
the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  the  usual  order  has  all  its 
difficulties  removed  by  the  method  which  is  here  proposed. 
The  old  topical  method  with  its  usual  designations,  Theology, 
Anthropology,  Christology,  Soteriology,  may  be  substantially  re- 
tained, if  we  do  not  let  these  topics  stand  in  mere  juxtaposition  or 
31 


482  THE    ONLY    TRUE    PRINCIPLE    OF    DIVISION. 

mechanical  sequence,  but  in  living  relation  to  one  another.  And 
this  we  have  in  the  method  zvhich  first  evokes  the  idea  of  this  con- 
nection out  of  the  living  experience  of  salvation  and  the  exposition 
of  the  Christian  consciousness.  This  gives  first  of  all  a  view  of 
all  the  doctrines  in  their  relation  to  each  other  ;  they  can  then,  in 
the  process  of  the  verification,  correction  and  purification  of  the 
ideas,  evolved  out  of  the  Christian  consciousness,  in  the  light  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  be  treated  in  the  usual  order.  The  Trinity 
and  the  Decrees  can  be  treated  first  in  their  economical  as- 
pects, and  then  in  their  essential  nature — the  first  as  immanent, 
the  second  as  transcendent.  And  we  may  be  able  to  see  in  the 
apprehension  of  these  doctrines  by  the  Church — made  in  the 
course  of  the  development  of  her  consciousness  as  Christian 
consciousness,  and  now  confirmed  by  the  investigations  of 
Scripture  —  a  light  which  will  illuminate  all  other  doctrines. 
These  doctrines  may  be  seen  to  throw  rays  of  glory  over  the 
entire  system  of  divine  truth;  they  may  appear  as  the  completed 
revelation  of  God ;  the  one  of  His  essential  nature,  the  other 
of  the  operations  of  His  wisdom,  power  and  love — the  revelation 
of  God  as  all  in  all,  as  well  as  over  all.  The  immanent  Trinity 
may  come  to  be  apprehended  as  the  revelation  of  God,  of  Him- 
self to  Himself ;  atid  thus,  to  have  great  significance  fcr  the  entire 
revelation  of  Himself  to  man,  a^id  for  the  entire  manifestation  of 
the  plan  of  redemptioji.  And  the  doctrine  of  Election,  contem- 
plated from  the  standpoint  of  Redemption,  will  manifest  the 
union  of  the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  man  in  Christ,  who 
is  the  end  of  all,  the  first  and  the  last ;  and  thus  reveal  the  true 
nature  of  the  covenant  of  redemption,  and  the  relations  of 
Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost. 

So  some  have  selected  from  among  the  ideas  of  the  Scriptures 
some  one  leading  and  controlling  idea  as  the  principle  of  the  divi- 
sion of  the  system.  Thus  two  great  ideas  in  regard  to  Christ- 
ianity prevail  in  the  Bible :  one,  that  it  is  the  revelation  of 
divine  grace  for  the  salvation  of  men  ;  the  other,  that  it  is  for 
the  glory  of  God.  According  to  the  one,  the  human  is  re- 
garded more  as  the  subject  of  the  divine  salvation ;  according 
to  the  other,  more  as  the  organ  of  God's  revelation  of  Himself 
The  one  seems  to  make  God  exist  only  for  the  happiness  of 
man;  the  other  to  make  man  exist  only  for  the  manifestation  of 
God.      These  two  ideas,  though  distinct,  are  inseparable ,  and  they 


HARMONY    OF    GOD's    GLORY    AND    MAN's    SALVATION,         483 

must  both  be  true.  And  if  we  wish  to  treat  satisfactorily  the 
truths  and  facts  of  Christianity  in  their  relations  to  human  sal- 
vation, and  in  their  relations  to  the  revelation  of  the  glory  of 
God — to  treat  fully  of  man  and  the  God-man  as  the  highest 
organs  of  the  divine  manifestation  ;  and  finally  and  completely, 
to  combine  the  two  processes  by  contemplating  them  together 
in  their  point  of  unity — the  results  of  one  in  the  light  of  those  of 
the  other — then  we  should  not  begin  with  these  facts  separately, 
lest  we  make  one  of  these  ideas  control,  or  even  exclude  the 
other,  but  with  the  idea  resulting  from  the  experience  of  salva- 
tion by  faith  in  Christ,  and  thus  see  their  7inion  in  the  divine  salva- 
tion as  actually  experienced,  involving  as  it  does  the  perfect  revela- 
tion of  God  in  Christ,  in  the  God-man,  and,  consequently,  the 
inseparable  connection  of  the  manifestation  of  God's  glory  in  the 
salvation  of  men  through  faith  in  Christ.  The  good,  the  highest 
good,  is  not  God  separate  from  the  creature,  nor  the  creature 
separate  from  the  Creator.  God  must,  indeed,  be  viewed  as 
distinct  in  His  existence  and  independent  of  all  other  being ; 
self-existent,  self-sufficient,  and  self-satisfied,  not  needing  any- 
thing; but  as  He  has  given  existence  to  creatures,  it  was  morally 
certain — though  not  necessary  either  physically  or  metaphysi- 
cally— certain  from  eternity,  that  He  would  create  them ;  and  as 
it  must  have  been  infinitely  worthy  of  Him  to  create  them,  their 
existence  belongs  to  the  highest  good  from  eternity  iji  idea,  and 
from  creation  in  reality.  The  highest  revelation  of  the  chief  good 
is  in  Christ  and  in  the  consummation  of  His  work  ;  and  this  in- 
volves the  7i7iion  of  God  and  the  creature  in  Him — the  glory  of  God 
and  the  salvation  of  the  creature  united  with  God  in  Christ  by 
faith — the  glory  of  God  in  their  everlasting  blessedness  and 
undisturbed  glorification  in  their  union  with  Him,  if  they  had  not 
sinned  ;  and  now  also  in  their  deliverance  from  evil — since,  and 
though  they  have  sinned — by  the  redemption  in  Christ,  and 
their  everlasting  blessedness  in  their  union  with  God  in  Him. 
Thus  the  glory  of  God  and  the  happiness  of  the  saints  consti- 
tute heaven ;  and  the  deliverance  of  the  brute  creature,  of  ma- 
terial nature,  from  the  bondage  of  corruption,  its  glorification  in 
connection  with  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God,  as  the 
theatre  of  God's  Kingdom — the  complete  image  and  manifesta- 
tion of  the  power,  the  suitable  instrumentality  and  means  of  the 
operations   of  God   and   man.     And  consequently,  the  cosmical 


484  THE   ONLY    TRUE    PRINCIPLE    OF    DIVISION. 

relations  of  Christ  also  belong  to  the  System  of  Theology ;  His 
work  in  creation  as  well  as  in  redemption,  His  reconciling  or 
brino-ing  into  union  with  God  the  forces  of  nature  as  well  as 
the  powers  of  spirit,  of  the  souls  of  the  saints — the  powers  as 
in  a  derived  way,  having  existence  in  themselves ;  and  spirits  as 
in  a  derived  way,  having  life  in  themselves ;  distinct  from  God 
and  yet  dependent  on  Him ;  coming  from  and  returning  to 
Him ;  distinct  from  Him  and  yet  having  Him  all  in  all  and  over 
all.  This  is  the  consummation  of  that  chief  good,  that  swnmimt 
bomnn,  which  is  realized  in  its  beginning  in  the  justification  of 
the  soul  through  faith,  in  the  fact  of  the  union  of  the  subject 
of  grace  with  God  in  Christ  through  faith  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  in 
the  experience  of  assurance  of  salvation  by  faith  in  Christ. 

Men  have  also  sometimes  seized  upon  some  prevailing  and 
controlling  idea  of  religion,  and  made  it  the  principle  of  the  divis- 
ion  of  theology.  Thus,  for  example,  as  religion  is  the  funda- 
mental relation  of  man,  we  might  use  it  as  such  a  governing 
principle  in  the  system ;  and  treat,  first,  of  the  relation  of  God 
to  men  as  children  of  God,  of  the  creatorship  of  God  and  the 
creatureship  of  man,  that  is,  of  Theology  ;  secondly,  of  man  in 
his  relation  to  God  as  not  yet  mediated  by  Christ,  the  doctrine 
of  the  primitive  state  and  original  destination  of  man,  then 
concerning  the  fall  and  sin,  that  is,  Anthropology ;  thirdly,  of 
the  person  of  Christ,  the  God-man,  that  is,  Christology ;  fourthly, 
of  the  work  of  redemption  by  Christ,  that  is,  objective  Soteri- 
ology ;  fifthly,  of  man  in  his  relation  to  Christ,  and  through 
Christ  to  God,  that  is,  subjective  Soteriology ;  sixthly,  of  the 
order  of  salvation,  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  seventhly, 
in  his  relation  to  Christ,  and  through  Christ  to  the  world,  that 
is,  the  comjnunioji  of  saints,  the  Church,  the  Word  and  Sacra- 
ments, that  is,  Ecclesiology ;  eighthly,  of  man  in  his  changed  re- 
lations to  nature,  death  and  the  resurrection,  final  judgment, 
eternal  retribution,  that  is,  Eschatology.  This  division  resembles 
the  true  idea,  in  that  it  starts  from  a  point  of  experience  in  re- 
ligion, but  it  may  be  experience  only  in  natural  religion,  and  con- 
sequently can7iot  be  the  true  starting  point,  nor  be  carried  as  a 
principle  of  division  into  the  sphere  of  revealed  religion,  of  Chris- 
tian tJieology.  This  method,  not  beginning  with  a  strictly  Chris- 
tian experience,  does  not  prepare  us  to  appreciate  the  Bible  as 
the  source  of  the   verification   of  our  experience,  and  leads  us 


UNION    OF    THE    COVENANT    AND    THE    KINGDOM.  485 

into  the  danger  of  letting  reason  have  the  same  control  here 
that  it  has  in  natural  religion,  of  substituting  ideas  for  facts,  or 
at  least  of  confounding  the  ideal  and  the  historical,  of  resolving 
the  facts  into  the  ideas.  The  principle  of  the  Reformation,  on 
the  contrary,  is  the  experience  of  revealed  truth,  of  the  power  of 
the  gospel  unto  salvation.  It  is  not  experience  of  a  relation  not 
yet  mediated  by  Christ.  The  subjective  idea  or  the  hypothesis 
which  is  to  be  our  guide  in  the  investigation  of  the  truths  and 
facts  of  Christianity,  intLst  spring  from  an  experience  zuhich  Chris- 
tianity has  first  made  possible,  a  peculiar  determination  of  con- 
sciousness which  has  been  produced  by  Christianity  as  the  living 
power  of  God  in  relation  to  the  human  soul. 

So  the  idea  of  a  covenant  runs  through  the  Bible,  and  this  may 
be  taken  as  controlling  in  the  system.  We  might  thus  divide  into, 
first,  the  parties  to  the  covenant,  giving  God,  or  Theology 
proper ;  secondly,  Man,  or  Anthropology  ;  then  Christology ,  the 
doctrine  of  the  Mediator  of  the  covenant,  in  His  person ;  Soteri- 
ology  objectively,  in  His  work  of  redemption  ;  the  benefits  of  the 
covenant  appropriated  through  the  Holy  Ghost,  subjective 
Soteriology  ;  different  economies  in  the  dispensation  of  the  cov- 
enant, means  of  grace,  Word  and  Sacraments,  order  of  salva- 
tion, vocation,  illumination,  conviction,  conversion,  justification, 
sanctification,  Ecclesiology,  Eschatology . 

And  so  the  idea  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  like  that  of  the  cove- 
nant, runs  through  the  entire  history  of  revelation  in  the  Old  and 
Nezv  Testament.  If  the  idea  of  a  covenant  agrees  with  that  of 
Christianity  as  a  revelation  for  human  salvation ;  that  of  the 
kingdom  corresponds  to  that  of  Christianity,  as  a  manifestation 
of  the  glory  of  God.  If  the  former  corresponds  with  the  idea 
of  humanity,  as  the  subject  of  the  divine  salvation  ;  the  latter 
corresponds  with  that  of  humanity  as  the  highest  organ  of  God's 
revelation  of  Himself;  as  the  former  does  justice  to  the  one,  so 
the  latter  does  to  the  other.  The  latter  would  present  the  sev- 
eral topics  of  the  theological  system  in  the  following  light. 
First,  Theology  proper  ;  God,  the  sovereign  king  of  the  kingdom  ; 
His  being,  attributes,  trinity,  counsels,  decrees.  Secondly, 
Anthropology;  that  is,  the  subjects  of  the  kingdom ;  man — in  his 
primitive  state  and  in  sin — the  organ  or  subject  for  the  manifes- 
ation  of  God's  justice  and  mercy — of  His  glory.  Thirdly, 
Christ,  the  founder  of  the  kingdom,  especially  in  His  relations  to 


486  THE    ONLY   TRUE    PRINCIPLE    OF    DIVISION. 

the  first  and  second  creations,  His  cosmical  and  spiritual  rela- 
tions ;  the  incarnation,  or  the  second  creation,  the  completion  as 
well  as  the  restoration  of  the  first  creation  ;  that  is,  Christology . 
Fourthly,  Soteriology ;  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom;  God 
as  Lord  of  all  the  world  of  creatures,  of  nature  and  of  spirit ; 
the  kingdom  in  the  heart;  grace,  means  of  grace;  the  kingdom 
all  over  the  human  world,  that  is,  the  Millennial  reign ;  the  king- 
dom over  the  entire  physical  world,  the  delivering  of  it  from 
bondage  and  the  introducing  of  it  into  the  liberty  of  the  sons 
of  God ;  the  divine-human  and  the  cosmical  kingdom.  As  the 
kingdom  originates  in  God,  when  completed  it  returns  to  Him  ; 
God,  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  all  in  all — the  consummation 
of  the  end  of  all  religion — union  with  God,  the  sovereign  good, 
not  absorbed  in  the  world,  nor  the  world  absorbed  in  Him;  God 
not  the  All,  but  all  in  all  and  over  all. 

Thus  we  see  how  either  of  these  ideas,  taken  from  among  the 
doctrines  contained  in  the  system,  would  equally  serve  as  the 
principle  of  division.  And  who  shall  say  which  has  the  greater 
claim,  if  either  is  to  be  used  for  this  purpose,  or  which  of  them 
shall  be  subordinate  to  the  other  in  the  system?  The  truth  is, 
that  they  are  neither  superordinate  nor  subordinate  ;  nor  does 
one  exclude  the  other;  but  they  are  both  united  in  a  broader,  if 
not  a  higher  idea,  in  one  more  comprehensive,  if  not  grander — 
m  the  idea  zvhich  springs  necessarily  from  Justification  by  faith,  from 
the  experience  of  peace  tuith  God  in  Christ  ;  the  idea  zvhich  is  not  a 
part  of  the  system,  but  of  the  groiindtvork  ;  and,  consequently,  is 
the  principle  for  the  discussion  and  division  of  the  system.  Both 
these  ideas,  human  salvation  and  the  glory  of  God,  will  come  to 
full  treatment  in  this  method ;  and  it  will  be  found  to  be  the 
point  of  union  between  the  idea  of  the  covenant  and  that  of  the 
kingdom.  This  theological  process,  the  development  of  the 
ideas  springing  from  the  material  principle  in  the  light  of  the 
formal  principle  of  the  Reformation — and,  thus,  also  the  veri- 
fication of  these  ideas  from  experience,  a  real  experience  of 
justification,  of  assurance  of  salvation  through  faith  in  Christ  as 
a  fact — will  be  found,  we  trust,  the  true  and  practicable  method 
for  an  Evangelical  Lutheran  Theology  which  shall  be  as  believ- 
ing and  orthodox  as  it  is  sound  and  scientific. 

We  should  joyfully  labor  in  such  a  work.  We  live  amid  the 
blessed  results  of  Christianity.     The  "leaven,"  so  "little"  when 


GLORIOUS    HOPE    OF    GOD's    PEOPLK.  487 

first  inserted,  is  rapidly  fermenting,  and  will  soon  leaven  the 
entire  mass  of  humanity.  "The  mustard  seed,"  so  small,  has 
sprung  into  a  great  tree,  affording  "leaves  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations,"  and  extending  its  branches  for  a  shelter  to  the  weak 
and  helpless,  and  affording  a  cooling  shade  for  the  rest  of  those 
"who  labor  and  are  heavy  laden."  The  kingdom,  first  promised 
to  a  "little  flock,"  has  extended  its  boundaries  far  and  wide,  ex- 
erting its  benign  influences  over  the  civilized  and  the  barbarous, 
the  learned  and  the  ignorant,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  high  and 
the  low ;  blessing  the  king  upon  his  throne  and  the  peasant  in 
his  cottage;  purifying  the  centres  of  civilization,  and  pursuing 
men  with  its  conservative  and  elevating  powers  to  the  outermost 
verge  of  human  society.  Many  centuries  have  passed  since  this 
kingdom  was  promised  by  the  Great  King  to  the  "  little  flock." 
Meantime  earthly  thrones  have  been  erected  and  overturned, 
kingdoms  have  been  established  and  destroyed,  nations  have 
risen  and  fallen,  and  others  now  exist,  in  turn  to  be  swallowed  by 
the  billows  of  time ;  but  triumphant  and  high  above  the  storm 
and  the  wave  has  stood  this  heavenly  kingdom,  ever  growing  in 
power  and  glory  ;  and  thus  it  will  stand  until  "great  voices  shall 
be  heard  from  heaven,"  proclaiming  that  "the  kingdoms  of  this 
world  have  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  His 
Christ."      For, 

"  Jesus  shall  reign  where'er  the  sun 
Doth  his  successive  journeys  run, 
His  kingdom  stretch  from  shore  to  shore 
rill  moons  shall  wax  and  wane  no  more." 

Let  US  consecrate  all  our  energies,  our  highest  thoughts,  our 
best  feelings,  our  mightiest  actions,  to  the  promotion  of  this 
great  cause  of  God  and  humanity;  and  though  our  eyes  close 
upon  earth  before  its  final  consummation,  we  will  behold  it  from 
a  higher  and  more  glorious  post  of  observation,  "amid  the 
sanctities  of  heaven." 

Whether  the  process  of  creation  and  reconciliation  will  close 
with  the  glorious  consummation  of  the  present  universe,  in  the 
kingdom  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  men,  or  whether  it  is  only 
one  of  the  grand  steps  in  the  movements  of  divine  counsel  and 
providence,  we  cannot  tell.  As  there  has  been  a  second  as  well 
as  a  first  creation  in  the  work  of  divine  revelation,  there  may 
yet  be  future  and  higher  stages  of  this  revelation  in  the  creation 


488  THE    ONLY    TRUE    PRINCIPLE    OF    DIVISION. 

and  reconciliation  of  creatures.  It  may  be,  as  there  was  a 
kingdom  of  spirits  whose  subjects  are  now  also  subjects  of  the 
present  higher  manifestation  of  God's  glory,  and  are  now  min- 
istering spirits  to  us  who  are  the  heirs  of  salvation,  who 
are  now  in  a  state  of  training  for  this  kingdom  in  its  glorious 
manifestation,  that  future  revelations  of  God's  glory  will  be 
made  through  other  creatures — subjects  of  a  still  higher  stage 
of  creation  and  reconciliation,  subjects  of  the  distinct  existence 
and  perfect  union  of  finite  beings  with  the  infinite  God  as  the 
source  and  end  of  all — creatures  to  whom  we,  as  kings  and 
priests,  shall  minister  as  we  have  been  ministered  unto.  But 
whatever  additional  stages  of  creation  and  reconciliation  there 
may  be,  Christ  will  be  the  Mediator  of  them  all,  the  first  and  the 
last,  the  Creator  and  Reconciler  of  all  things  in  the  new-created 
heavens  and  the  new-created  earths.  They  will  all  be  only 
fuller  manifestations  of  the  absolutely  perfect  revelation  of  God, 
which  He  is.  And  in  either  case,  we  do  know  that  God  will  be 
most  glorious,  and  we  most  happy.  All  will  be  filled  with  the 
infinite  blessedness  of  communion  with  God,  who  shall  be  in  all, 
and  over  all,  and  all  in  all;  to  whom  be  all  power  and  praise 
forever  and  ever :  Amen. 


INDEX. 


Abelard,  162,  164. 

Abraham,  145,  213. 

Absolute,  the,  229. 

Absolute  Being,  209,  219. 

Absolute  Idea,  211.  ■• 

Absolute  Identity,  217,  229. 

Absolute  Nescience,  206. 

Absolute  Original,  the,  234,  237. 

Absolute  Derived,  the,  234,  237. 

Absolute  Abstract  Being,  216  sg. 

Absolution,  the,  40,  304. 

Access,  Direct,  74,  105,  390. 

Acosmism,  63,  217,  228,  350,  395. 

Activity,  the  Divine  and  Human,  403. 

Agathology,  478. 

Alternative,  the,  243. 

Anabaptists,  128,  302,  392. 

Analogia  Fidei,  107. 

Analogia  Scripturas,  107,  146. 

All,  the,  211,  251,  486. 

Analytic,  the,  471. 

America,  426. 

Annas,  142. 

Andrese,  411. 

Anselm,  162-165,  179,  20S,  473. 

Antilegomena,  147. 

Antinomians,  418,  514. 

Anthropology,  142,  174,  350,' 481. 

Anthropomorphism,  220. 

Anthropopathy,  220. 

Appetite,  the  Animal,  243. 

Apologetics,  152,  159,   160;    Period   of, 

161. 
Apologists,  155,  158,  160. 
Apology,    Augsburg    Confession,     294, 

377,412,  417. 
Apollo,  250. 
Apostles,  376. 
Apostles'  Creed,  41,  145. 
Apostolic  Church,  78. 
Apotheosis,  335. 

(4 


Aquinas,  Thomas,  165. 

Arianism,  220. 

Arians,  193,  205. 

Aristotle,  124,  158,  190,  195,  358,  363, 
442. 

Aristotelianism,  191,  215,  461. 

Arius,  115,  126  sqq. 

Arminianism,  434,  469.  • 

Arndt,  105,  175,  274,  424. 

Articles  of  Religion,  21,  88. 

Articles,  Pure  and  Mixed,  21. 

Articles,  Fundamental  and  Non-funda- 
mental, 21-25,  35  ^17->  39>  45- 

Articles,  Saxon  Visitation,  the,  418. 

Assurance  of  Salvation,  73,  401  ;  Per- 
sonal, 76,  78,  105,  175,  180,  189; 
Decline  of,  79;  Destruction  of,  80; 
Revival  of,  82-84  >  Consciousness  of, 
99-102,  136,  212;  Essential  Element 
of  Lutheran  Reformation,  105,  136 ; 
Relation  of,  to  Rule  of  Faith,  129 
sqq. 

Assurance,  Theories  of — Calvinistic,  Lu- 
theran, Melanchthonian,  411-417. 

Assurance  of  Faith,  50 ;  Point  of  Cer- 
tainty in,  55,  57,  72;  Personal,  76; 
Centre  of  Theological  Thought,  444 ; 
Element  of  Saving  Faith,  77  sq. 

Assurance  of  the   Primitive  Church,  78. 

Assurance  of  Old  Catholic,  78  sqq. 

Assurance  of  Roman  Catholic,  80  sqq. 

Assurance  of  Evangelical  Lutheran,  82 
sqq.;  Expounded  by  Luther,  85  ;  Per- 
sonal Certainty  of,  76,  86,  88,  94,  97  ; 
Inner,  99,  103,  105  sq.,  1 14;  Objective 
Certainty  of,  106  ;  Personal  Decision 
of,  no;  Practicability  of,  1 14,  117; 
Necessity  of,  to  the  Purity  of  Church, 
117  sqq.,  128,  137 

Astronomy,  367,  374. 

Athanasius,  146,  152 


490 


INDEX. 


Atheism,  63,65,  69,  227,  230;  Material 
istic,  260,  280,  323,  342  sq.,  3^0,  360. 

Auberlen,  176,  273. 

Augsburg,  34,  112. 

Augsburg  Confession,  31-35,  39  sq.,  42, 
44;  Interpreted  by  the  Bible,  41,  170 
sqq.,  185,  294,  390,  394,  405,  454,  456  ; 
On  Public  Freedom,  467,  479. 

Augustine,  89,  107,  112,  115  sq.,  1 18 
sq.,  122-124,  143)  152-154,  160  sq., 
162,  165,  270,  417. 

Augustinianism,  42,  81,  194,  402,  456, 
469. 

Authenticity  of  Sacred  Scriptures,  337 ; 
Two  Great  Facts  of,  358 ;  Not  Histori- 
cal Defect,  Skeptical  Criticism  Untrust- 
worthy, 359  ;  Four  Books  Undoubted, 
361. 

Bacon,  Lord,  331 

Balaam,  145. 

Ban,  the,  304.  ^ 

Baptism,  84,  456. 

Bare  Word  of  God,  1165^.,  Incompar- 
able, 118;  Necessary  to  Purity  of 
of  Church,  119,  123  sq.,  142. 

Beck,  Dr.,  473. 

Belief,  70  :  In  God,  207 

Bengel,  177. 

Bernhard,  St.,  113,  119. 

Bethlehem,  369. 

Bible  and  Word  of  God,  380. 

Biblical  Cosmology,  390. 

Biblical  Realism,  52,  59,  65. 

Biblical  Theology,  23,  473. 

Biblical  Idea,  the,  54. 

Biblicists,  the,  36,  126,  128;  Comp. 
with  Romanists,  124;  Did  not  Clearly 
Apprehend  Justification  by  Faith,  129 
sq. 

Bishops,  79,  117  sqq.,  121,  139  sq. 

Bohemians,  465. 

Books,  Canonical,  the,  138,  154  sqq.; 
Human,  119;  Luther  on  his  Own, 
119  sqq.;  Book  of  Books.  120  sqq.  ; 
Other,  122;  Inspired,  the,  138,382; 
Apostolic,  the,  138;  Apocryphal,  the, 
153  sqq.;  Authentic,  337. 

Brentz,  417,  460. 

Calixtus,  iS,  172,  3S2,  471. 


Caiaphas,  142. 

Cain,  163  sq. 

Calvin,  162,  389,  451,  481. 

Calvinism,  434. 

Calvinists,  395. 

Canon  of  Sacred  Scriptures,  138, 146, 149. 

Canterbury,  164. 

Carlstadt,  109. 

Catechetics,  17. 

Categorical  Imperative,  173,  210,  443. 

Catholicizing  Tendency,  461. 

Cause,  Final  and  Efficient,  236. 

Chalcedon,  Council  of,   115. 

Chalybaeus,  280. 

Celsus,  160,  221. 

Cephas,  162. 

Chemnitz,  460. 

Chinese,  the,  293. 

Cicero,  277. 

Christ,  the  Real  Manifestation  of  God, 
73;  Substance  of  the  Gospel,  37,  72, 
TAsq.,  130,  I2,zsq.,  136,  147- 

Christendom,  22,  38,  44,  52,  64,  66,  68, 
86,97,   116,  138,    144,  172,   192,  216 

Christian  Theology:  Exegetical,  Histor- 
ical, Systematic,  Practical,  17. 

Christianity,  73,  75,  97  ;  Perfect  Reve- 
lation, the,  29,  130,  133,  140,  144, 
160,  242,  253,  259,  333  sq.;  Benefits 
of,  336,  342 ;  New  Source  of  Truth, 
.347,348;  Effects  of,  362;  Supernat- 
ural, 364,  378;  Present  Condition, 
426 ;  Restoration  of  Faith,  427  ;  Cer- 
tainty of  its  Truth,  428,  432 ;  Allied 
to  all  Truth,  441  ;  Sacred  History, 
442 ;  Universal  Nature  of,  443 ; 
Adaptedness,  444;  In  Days  of  Lu- 
ther and  the  Present,  444. 

Christianity  and  Natural  Religion,  437 
sqq. 

Christianity  and  Heathenism,  220,  237. 

Christology,  459  sq.,  463. 

Christology,  Strict  Lutheran,  463. 

Christology,  Calvinistic,  464,  480  sq. 

Church,  Christian;  Founding  of,  I  GO, 
127  sq.,  139,  144;  Theology  of,  17, 
189;  Has  the  Sacred   Scriptures,   in, 

127,  139- 
Church,  The   True,  89,   166;    Invisible, 


INDEX. 


491 


84 ;  The  Congregation  of  True  Be- 
lievers and  Receives  God's  Word, 
84-92;  Has  Assurance  of  Salvation, 
90;  Gift  of  Holy  Ghost,  (jzsq.;  Its 
Holiness  Personal,  94-97 ;  Unrighteous 
not  Members,  95  sqq. ;  It  Alone  Un  ■ 
derstands  the  Scriptures,  94;  Deter- 
mines their  Canonicity  and  Interpreta- 
tion through  the  Congregation  of 
Believers,  138  sq.,  140  sq.,  142,  146; 
By  the  Believing  Understanding,  147, 
149 ;  Its  Members  do  not  Rely  upon 
the  Visible  Church,  85,  87  ;  Because  the 
Visible  Church  does  Err,  91  ;  Funda- 
mental Conception  of,  450;  The  Holy 
Christian  Church,  295,  298,  303 ;  Doc- 
trine of,  176. 

Church,  Hierarchical,  309. 

Church,  Roman  Catholic,  82,  155,  292, 
378 ;  Its  Mediation,  84 ;  Authority, 
84;  Infidelity  of,  155. 

Church,  Evangelical  Lutheran,  22,  30, 
40,  42;  System  of,  46  sq.,  105;  In 
this  Country,  32,  47,  174;  Government 
of,  300,  465  ;  Imperfect,  466 ;  Disci- 
pline of,  303  ;  Declarative,  306. 

Clergy,  296. 

Coccejus,  389. 

Cook,  370. 

Cognitio  Dei  Naturalis,  267. 

Cognilio  Dei  Supernaturalis,  268. 

Communicatio  Idiomatum,  458 ;  As  a 
Donum  Superadditum,  462. 

Communion,  Immediate,  74-76,  83,  129, 
134  ;  Personal,  105,  194,  232,  309-31 1, 
317,400,407. 

Conception  of  God,  The  Primitive, 
198  sqq.,  200-215,  sq.,  2lS. 

Conflict,  The  All-absorbing,  237,  240  sq. 

Confounding  of  God  and  World,  227. 

Conscience,  52,  54,  62,  loi,  116,  123, 
125,  136,  150  sq.,  212,  233,  103^.7.7., 
243,  280,  286. 

Conscientionalism,  275. 

Consciousness,  Origin  of,  239  ;  Certainty 
of,  136. 

Consciousness,  the  Common,  58,  69,  71. 

Consciousness,  the  Moral,  61,  71. 
Consciousness,  the  Religious,  63,  71. 


Consciousness,  the  Christian,  18,  55,  65, 
181,  183,  193;  Independent  of  Science, 
57;  Pre-supposed  by,  58;  Origin  of 
the  Lutheran  Reformation  and  Root 
of  its  Theology,  59  ;  Divinely  Deter- 
mined, 68,  153. 

Concrete,  Real  Being,  216,  331. 

Conservatism,  The  True,  30;  The  False, 

45- 
Consolation  Only  in  the   Sacred  Scrip- 
tures, 116,  120. 
Constance,  Council  of,  95. 
Constantinople,  Council  of,  1 16. 
Contact,    the  Actual,  51-56,  59-61,  65 

sq.,  68  sq.,    152,    157,    159,    199  sq., 

207,  280,  319,  446. 
Contemplative,  the,  163. 
Content,  the,  of  Systematic  Theology, 

18. 
Contradiction,  None  in  the  Idea  of  God, 

180. 
Cosmological  Proof,  209. 
Councils,  79,  80,  87,  91,  106,   112,   117, 

119,     123,    125,    136    sq.,    140,   143; 

Provincial,  79,  81 ;  Oecumenical,  80  j^. 
Counsel,  218. 
Covenant,  485. 

Craft,  State,  King,  Priest,  281. 
Creation,  193,  336;    First  and   Second, 

66   sq.,  447,  371  ;    Mosaic  Account, 

365  ;   Evolution,  341  sq. 
Creatorship   and    Creatureship,    75,  132 

sqq.,  257,  259,  334  sq.,  444,  484- 
Creatureship,  Sinful  Slate  of,  134. 
Creeds,  Use  and  Abuse  of,  28-30,  33,  107 

sq.,    139,    143;   Oecumenical,  14557.,- 

Not  Authoritative  Standards,  139,  145  ; 

Should  have  Preference  for  Our  Own, 

44;  Augsburg    Confession,   174-177; 

Not  the   Groundwork,  but  a   System, 

177. 
Criterion    of   Truth,    Des  Cartes',   172; 

Opposed  by  Kant,  173. 
Criticism,    Believing,  45  ;    Unbelieving, 

45;   Biblical,  18. 

Damascus,  361. 
Danaeus,  19. 
Daniel,  95,  97,  214. 


492 


INDEX. 


Darwin,  247,  447. 

Darwinism,  236. 

David,  213. 

Decrees  of  God,  the,  481,  482. 

Deism,  213,  241,  264,  310,  313,  317, 
33^>  343.  350.  400,  404  s^.,  Dele- 
terious Influence  in  Church,  225 ; 
Degenerate  Form  of  Monotheism, 
224-226,  423;  Rationalistic,  172,  343. 

Deities,  (he  Inferior,  216. 

Delphi,  250. 

Demonstration,  Logical,  24,  61,  207 
S(^.,  Insufficiency  of,  210-212,  211 
st^.,  Imaginary,  67;  Impracticable 
and  Unnecessary,  70  stj.;  Demonstra- 
tive Method,  172. 

Dependence,  the  Absolute,  225. 

Des  Cartes,  65. 

Determinate  State  of  Being,  215,217, 375. 

Deviation  from  Truth,  171. 

Diana,  250. 

Dignity,  Spiritual,  243. 

Discoveries,  Psychological,  441. 

Distinction,  of  Being,  242,  335  ;  Of  Nat- 
ural and  Supernatural,  338;  Of  Fun- 
damental and  Non- fundamental,  36- 
40;  Of  Principle  and  Doctrine,  147  S(^.  ; 
Between  God  and  Man,  421  ;  Of 
Scripture  as  Means  of  Grace  and  Rule 
of  Faith,  129-131,  134,  147,  150. 

Divine  Infinity,  213,  216. 

Divine  Personality,  241,  324. 

Divine  Truth;  Indestructible,  121,  266, 
291,  306  sq. 

Divine  Existence,  Proofs"of,  445. 

Division,  Principle  of,  471 ;  Pietistic  Ap- 
proximation, 473  ;  Defect  of,  474  ; 
Defect  of  Schleiermacher,  475  ;  Ap- 
plication of,  477  ;  Advantages  of,  478. 

Docetism,  462  sq. 

Doctors,  116,  121. 

Doctrine  and  Fact,  157;  Pure,  79;  Doc- 
trinal Basis,  32-37. 

Dogma,  Ecclesiastical,  21;  Fundamental, 
21-24  •^'/■ 

Dogmas,  Human,  Deluding,  88. 

Dogmatic  Formulre,  37,  79. 

Dogmatics,  18  ;  Dogmatics  and  Ethics, 
lS-20;  Old  Lutheran,  459. 


Dorner,  71,  163,  255,  258,  301,  375,  412, 
417,  459;  History  of  Doctrine  of  Per- 
son of  Christ,  460. 

Dualism,  219-222;  Excludes  all  Idea  of 
Sin  and  Redemption,  221,  27S. 

Duehring,  206 

Early  Church,  the,  205. 

Early  Lutheran  Reformation,  30,  35,  3S. 

Ebionilism,  463,  477. 

Ecclesiastical  System,  Not   Inspired,  43. 

Ecclesiology,  479,  484  sq. 

Ego  and  Non-ego,  261  sq. 

Egyptians,  293. 

Election,  Evils  of  Unconditional,  225, 
413,461,  497. 

Emanation,  227. 

Emotionalism,  275. 

Emperor,  139. 

England,  453. 

Enthusiasm,  230,  250,  264,  271. 

Epicureans,  192. 

Ephesus,  115,  250. 

Epistles,  James  and  Hebrews,  376. 

Episcopacy,  434. 

Eschatology,  478,  484. 

Ethics,  18,  78,  93,  109,  233. 

Ethics,  Christian,  252-254;  History  of, 
252 ;  Inseparal^le  from  Christian 
Theism,  253  ;  Ethical  Researches,  441 ; 
Luther's  Apprehension,  254;  Pietistic 
Return,  259  ;  Ethical  Tendencies  of 
Melanchthon,i74,  234;  Ethical  Power, 
216;  Ethical  Personali'y,  438. 

Eunomians,  205. 

Europe,  426. 

Eutychus,  115. 

Evangelical  Alliance,  the  Christian 
World's,  38. 

Evil,  Origin  of,  336. 

Evolution,  Darwinian,  236,  447. 

Evolution,  Relation  to  Creation,  341. 

Exegetical  Theology,  17. 

Exinanitio,  459  sq 

Experience,  48  sqq.,  50,  57-70.  76,  137, 
159,  164,  171,  249,  428;  Real  though 
not  Sensuous,  159,  176-178;  Specific, 
178  sq.,  212;  of  Personal  Salvation, 
179,  190,  212,  249,  308,  339;  At  Re- 


INDEX. 


493 


formation,  179;   General  and  Specific, 
179;   Real  though  Spiritual,  200. 
Experience  Inherited,  236. 

Faith,  its  Source,  113,  207;  Christian, 
103,  114,  160;  Specific,  163,  168;  In- 
dependent of  Science,  163-165,  166- 
168,  170;  Religious,  Nature  of,  269; 
Embraces  Knowledge,  P'eeling,  Voli- 
tion, 270;  Characteristic  of,  270;  Rela- 
tion to  Enthusiasm,  Theosophy,  271  ; 
Distinguished  from  False  Mysticism, 
273 ;  Onesidedness  Avoided,  275  ; 
Certitude  of,  180,  275,  278  ;  Individual 
Certainty  of,  106;  Relation  to  the 
Word,  178  sq.,  1S9. 

Faith-Philosophy,  the,  20S. 

Fallibility  of  all  Human  Teaching,  I14- 
116,  1185^.,   120-122,    125-143,  154. 

False  Spiritualism,  1 28. 

Fanaticism,  271. 

Fanatics,  109  sq.,   1 1 2,  127  sq. 

Fathers,  the,  40,  85,  87,  112,  114-116; 
More  Fallible  than  the  People,  121, 
123,125,  141-143.  184. 

Feeling,  Religious,  231-234,  237.  Feel- 
ing, Mystical,  51,  83. 

Feuerbach,   174,  350. 

Fichte,  133,  211,  234,  261. 

Fischer,  280. 

Force,  Blind,  105,  407. 

Formula,  of  Concord,  34,  185,  413,  417, 
459;  Docetic  and  Catholicizing  Re- 
mains, 462. 

Formulas,  Logical,  171,   175. 

France,  242, 

Franke,  453. 

Frassen,  Claude,  382. 

Freedom,  the,  of  the  Will,  419;    Evan- 
angelical,  43,  145,  150;  True  Purpose  I 
of,  44-46 ;  True  Nature  of,  253,  286, 
288,  291,  398  sq. 

French  Sorbonne,  86,  124. 

General  Synod,  32,  35,  38,  39,  40 ; 
Doctrinal  Basis  of,  32 ;  Defense  of,  32- 
47  ;   Character  and    Spirit  of,  305,  433 

•f|7^-.  453  sq-,  470- 
General  Revelation,  65. 


Geology,  363,  367,  374. 

Germans,  203. 

Germany,  30,  105,  1S5,  242,  473. 

Gnosis,  471. 

God,  Personal,  192,  212,  242;  A  Spirit, 
196,  211,  217,  sq.:  Self-revealing 
201  ;  In  no  Necessary  Relations,  205, 
210-215  ■>  Luther's  Living  God,  217; 
Creator  and  Reconciler,  224;  Abso- 
lute Spirit,  213;  Free  Creator,  214 
sq.;  Determinate  Existence,  215,  217, 
220,  225;  Denial  of,  229;  Conscious, 
238;  Not  the  All,  251;  The  True 
Absolute,  252;  Against  Deistic  and 
Pantheistic  Vievi'S,  Personal  Love, 
260,  264,  280,  286,  336,351;  Self- 
Controlling,  395  ;  Living,  the,  402 ; 
Knowable  but  Incomprehensible,  198- 
200  ;   Knowable  Only  in  Christ,  251. 

God-man,  the,  369 ;  Humanity  of,  360. 

Good,  the  Sovereign,  483. 

Gospel,  Substance  of  the  Bible,  134,  137; 
Revelation  of  the  Manner  in  which 
we  are  Justified,  325,  327. 

Government  of  Church,  140 ;  Moral, 
139  sqq. 

Grace,  Relation  to  the  Human  Will,  410; 
Calvinistic  Theory,  411;  Irresistible, 
411-413,  422;  Special,  413;  Preve- 
nient,  77  sqq.,  119;  Universal,  423; 
Lutheran  Theory,  411  ;  Word  and 
Sacraments,  Subjects  Passive,  41 1; 
Dispensed  by  Christ,  81 ;  Free,  77, 83  sq. 

Gratuitous  Justification,  77-83. 

Greeks,  250. 

Gregory,  143. 

Groundwork,  17-47,  39  sq.,  50,  56,  59, 
131,  1565^.,  170,  174,  184,  l86,  270, 
377;  Relation  to  the  System,  170,  178, 
185. 

Grounds,  Anthropological  and  Theolog- 
ical, 345;  Cosmological,  345. 

Guarantees,  the  Human,  44,  46. 

Halle,  32. 
Hamann,  273. 
Hamartology,  478. 

Heart,  103;  Assured,  103  sqq.;  Faith 
in  the  Heart,  138  sq.,  148,  285. 


494 


INDEX. 


Heathendom,  64,  68,  74  s^.,  78,  190, 
253.  293,  337,  362  St/.,  398,  461. 

Hegel,  173,  211,  217,  229,  262,  448. 

Hegelians,  205. 

Heidelberg  Catechism,  391. 

Herbert  of  Cherbury,  176. 

Heresy,  270. 

Hero  of  the  Reformation,  43. 

Heterodoxy,  270. 

Hickok,  Dr.,  49,  194,  251. 

Hierarchy,  80,  308  st/.;  Hierarchical 
Lutheranism,  467. 

Historical,  47, 67, 76;  History  in  Reason, 
67;  Historical  Revelation,  98  s^.,  133, 
207;  Historical  Theology,  17,  73  ^^., 
316,  326,  329,  353. 

History,  281. 

History,  Sacred,  189,  442;  Practicable, 
354- 

Holiness,  81 ;  Impersonal,  81  ;  Personal, 
92,  94,  96  sy. 

Holy  Christian  Church,  84,  92  stj.,  95, 
114,  145. 

Holy  Spirit,  Inseparable  from  the  Gos- 
pel, 135,  140;  Given  to  all  Believers, 
166  s^.;  Relation  to  Means  of  Grace, 
According  to  Protestantism,  391-394; 
Differences  Betv^feen  Lutheran  and 
Reformed,  393 ;  True  Lutheran  Idea, 
263;  Grace  and  Means  not  Identical, 
402  ;  Reformed  View,  Grace  Irresist- 
ible, 395. 

Homiletics,  17. 

Hope,  230. 

Humanism,  176. 

Huss,  John,  63. 

Hylozoism,  237. 

Idea,  Judaistic,  259. 

Idea,  The  Heathen,  174,  186,  192  5^., 
194,  216,  241,  259,  292,  335  s,7.,  339, 
398,408  ;  The  Modern  Revival  of.  71, 
192;  Remains  of,  in  the  Church,  192, 
194. 

Idea,  The  Christian,  25,  56  :  Counter- 
poise to  Skeptical  Thought,  186; 
Applied,  188  j^.,  191-193;  Involved 
in  Saving  Faith,  193-195  sr/.,  206- 
224;  Excludes  Monism,  227,  248,  310, 
316  s^.,  320,  333,336,  23^,  342,   370 


^1->  3^5'  395.  ^00,  404;  Necessary  to 

Faith  in  Revelation,  408,  431  ;   The 

True  Guide,  433  s^.  ;  Revealed,  191, 

204;  Slowly  Apprehended,  191,  193; 

Revival  of,  at  Reformation,  194,  196; 

Positive  Conception,  195-200. 
Ideas,  The  Two    Possible  and   Antago- 
nistic, 336,  363,  436. 
Ideas,  The   Necessary,  339;   Belonging 

to    the    Groundwork,    while     Others 

Belong  to  the  System,  196. 
Idealism,  228;  Refuted,  52. 
Idealism,  Absolute,  206,  229,  248,  281. 
Idealism,  Egoistic,  447. 
Idealism,  Gnostic,  477. 
Idealist,  the,  51. 
Ideal-Realism,  53,  65. 
Identity,  Absolute,  the,  174  s^..  217  s(/. 
Illumination,  the,  of  Holy  Spirit,    137, 

139,  146,  150  j^.,  163,  168,  245. 
Immanence,    338    s^.,   402,    481 ;     The 

Divine,  213,  229,  235,  275. 
Immediate  Communion,  56. 
Immediate  Access  to  God,  54,  74  st/.,  80, 

129. 
Immortality,   Personal,  246  ;  Brought  to 

Light  by  the  Gospel,  64;  Impersonal, 

81. 
Imperative,  Categorical,  173.  210.443 
Incarnate  Word,  133. 
Incarnation,  the,  335,  340,  371,  376 
Incomprehensibility  of  God,  200  s<j. 
Indeterminate  Being,  260,  316,  398,  402, 

404  sg. 
Infallibility,  the,  of  the  Pope,   142-145 

s^.;  Of  the  Church,  154  s^. 
Infidelity,    Its    Former  and    its    Present 

Views,  241,435  St/.;  Unscientific,  440. 
Infinite  Spirit,  210,  213  ;  Substance,  209  ; 

Understanding,  209. 
Influences,  the  Divine,  Immediate,  1:0, 

131.  13s.  137,  139,  314,  316,  341  •■ 
Evils  of  Denial  of,  400 ;  Doctrine  of 
Irresistibility  of,  402. 

Influences,  Magical,  81. 

Inner  Certainty  of  Truth,  54. 

Inner  Light,  51,  rii,  130. 

Inner  Revelation,  207. 

Irenaeus,  130. 

Inspiration,  the,  of  Sacred  Scriptures,  66, 


INDEX. 


495 


107,  109,  115;  Limited  to  Christ  and 
His  Gifts,  128,  148  j-f.,  155;  Relation 
to  Incarnation,  371  ;  Luther's  View, 
374  sqq.;  Inseparable  from  the  Refor- 
mation, 377  ;  Mediaeval  Theory,  376  ; 
Denial  of,  382 ;  Dynamical  Theory, 
3S3 ;  Dictation,  382 ;  Necessity  of, 
378;  Applies  to  Writings,  381  ;  Plen- 
ary, 383;  Consistent  with  Discrepan- 
cies, etc.,  384;  Miraculous  Character, 
386. 

Intellectualism,  42,  79,  157  sq.,  164,  171 
sq  ,  174,  177,  182,  195,  206,  245,  275, 
282,  405,  412. 

Intelligence,  Conscious,  238;  Uncon- 
scious, 206;  Instinctive,  235 ;  Intelli- 
gent, but  not  Conscious,  239. 

Interpositions,  Supernatural,  173. 

Interpretation  of  .Sacred  .Scriptures,  93 
sq.,  138  sq.,  140-142  ;  Creeds,  Helps, 
but  not  Infallible  Interpreters,  145  ; 
So  thought  Luther,  146;  the  only  Rule, 
144-146;  Instrumentality  of  Faith. 
138  sq. 

Jacobi,  208. 

Jerome,  II2,  116,  119,  122. 

Jerusalem,  167,  250. 

Jews,  the,  250. 

Joseph,  143. 

Judaism,  79,  241,  253,  461. 

Judah,  369. 

Justification  by  Faith  Alone,  as  a  Princi- 
ple, 53  ;  Neglect  of,  157,  169  sq.\  De- 
preciation of,  171,  402. 

Kahnis,  481. 

Kant,  206,  208,  210,  221,  200  sq.,  448. 

Kantians,  205,  208. 

Knapp,  302. 

Kenosis,  the,  459. 

Keys,  Given  to  the  Whole  Church,  444, 
301  ;  To  the  Congregation  of  Believ- 
ers, 301-304. 

Kingdom  of  Spirits,  47,  225-227. 

Knowledge,  an  Element  of  Faith,  50, 
55-57  sq.,  157-159,  198,  320  sqq  ; 
Point  of  Certainty  in  It,  55-58  ;  Bib- 
lical, 178,  220,  136-138;  Of  God,  a 
Reason-conception,   202,    a     Positive 


Idea,  203-205,  220;   Knows,  but  does 
not  Comprehend,  202. 
Kurtz,  Dr.  J.  H.  370. 

Laplace,  247. 

Lactantius,  277. 

Laity,  380,  389. 

Law,  as  Impersonal  Force,  200. 

Legalism,  275. 

Leipzig,  Z%. 

Liberal  Spirit,  30,  184. 

Lifeless  Orthodoxy,  158,  260. 

Light,  the,  of  the  Principle,  53  sq. 

Loci  Communes,  169,  174,  418. 

Logical  Powers,  172. 

Logical  Understanding,  440;  Processes. 
445.  447  sq. 

Logical  Necessity,  203,  267. 

Logos,  66,  75;  Incarnation  of,  81,  134, 
215,245,  247,  347,  370,  372,  375;  As- 
arkos,  456. 

Lord's  Supper,  459. 

Love,  Personal,  Ethical,  310,  312,  319, 
410. 

Lully,  Raymond,  162. 

Luke,  381,  389. 

Luther,  t^t,,  38,  42  sq.,  54,  81  sq.,  84-86, 
97-99,  130;  Experience  of  Assurance 
of  Salvation,  85,  98  ;  Inner  Conscious- 
ness of  Certainty,  102,  129;  Personal 
Experience,  103-105,  120:  Confidence 
in  the  Intelligibility  and  Sufficiency  of 
the  Sacred  Scriptures,  107,  125;  Did 
not  Disparage  Learning,  109  sq.,  118; 
But  Taught  that  Sacred  Scriptures  are 
Intelligible  to  Every  Man,  114;  Faith 
and  the  Word,  his  Motto,  \2,osq.;  Re- 
jected Roman  and  Mystical  Theories, 
1 27-1 3 1 ;  Insists  on  the  Witness  of  the 
Spirit,  102 ;  Length  of  Time  does  not 
Justify  Error,  121 ;  Prove  all  Things, 
122-124,  127,  129  sq.,  139,  146,  148 
sq.,  150,  152,  158;  The  only  Rule  of 
Faith,  131,  135  sqq.,  148,  150,  152, 
418;  Originality  of  His  Piety ,425;  First 
to  Apprehend  Clearly  the  Ground  of 
Certainty,  158;  Realism,  159,  404, 
408,  454,  458 ;  Experience,  165  sq., 
169,  174,  S(j.,  177-180,  183,  212,  217  ; 
Positions   .\gainst   the    Fanatics,  414  ; 


496 


INDEX. 


Antinomians,  418  ;  Fundamental  Pos- 
ition, 452;  Against  Erasmus,  455; 
Views  of  the  Human  Nature  of  Christ, 
458  ;  His  Christology,  460  ;  Accepts 
Supervision  of  the  Princes,  467 ;  In 
Advance  of  All  on  the  Point  of  Cer- 
tainty, 158;  His  God  of  Life  and 
Consolation,  250,  255  sqq.  ;  Hesitates 
to  Systematize,  257  sq.;  God  only  in 
Christ,  263,  273,  290  sq.;  Revelation, 
374  sqq.,  376;  Human  Element  in  the 
Bible,  382,  385,  389;  God's  Glory 
His  Love,  396  ;  On  Ordination,  302 
sq.,  317. 

Lutheranism,  263,  434,  458;  Its  Real- 
ism, 451  ;  The  True,  99,451,461,463, 
466  sq..  The  Needed,  468. 

Lutheran  Church,  22,  30,  40,  42  ;  System, 
46  sq.,  105;  In  this  Country,  32,  47, 
174. 

Lutheran  Protestantism,  41,  43,  45,  379  ; 
True  Character,  47,  131. 

Lutheran  Reformation,  Origin  of,  59,  82  ; 
Relation  to  Modern  Philosophy,  437. 

Lutheran  Theologians,  205. 

Macf.donius,42,  86,  118,  124. 
Magi,  142. 

Magical  Influence,  81. 
Man,   Prerogative  of,    62 ;    His    Funda- 
mental Relation,  132;    Distinguished 
from  the  Brute,  62 ;  Dependence  and 
Susceptibility,    133;   Necessities   as   a 
Creature,  134;  Capacity  for  the  Idea  of 
God  and  Immortality,  133  ;  Not  Passive 
Subject,  410;    Block  or   Stone,  411; 
Relation  to  God,  421 ;  Personal,  3245^., 
422  ;  Points  of  Contact  with  God,  423  ; 
Not    Entirely    Passive,    423,    432  sq., 
440,    443 ;    Can    Receive   Revelation, 
133,    159,  220;    Can    Know  it  to  be 
Such,  354. 
Manichaeism,  477. 
Mark,  381,  389. 
Martensen,  22,    156,  204,  218,  249,  273, 

y:,i,  347,  357>  43°,  436,  442,  4S1. 
Mary,  91,  143. 

Materialism,    206,  227,    230,    242,   260, 
281,  322. 


Materialist,  49. 
Means  of  Grace,  135. 
Mediate  and  Immediate,  341. 
Mediations,   Priestly,  80;   Ecclesiastical, 

81 -S3  ;  Concentrated  in  Christ,  130. 
Mediator,    Christ,    the    Only   Priest  and 

Sacrifice,  74  sq. 
Melanchthon,  42,  86,  124,  169,  174  j<7., 
177  sq.,  185,  195,  256,  259,  294,  404, 
417;     Ethical    Character,    418,    424; 
Man  of  Science,  424,  457  sq.,  460. 
Men  all  Fallible,  120. 
Metaphysical  Necessity,  ^03.  268;   Ten- 
dency of,  234. 
Method,  the,   of  the   Reformation,   168, 
171;  The    Scientific,   177;  The    De- 
monstrative, 172. 
Methodism,  105. 
Methodistic  Revival,  190. 
Middle  Ages,  215,  265,  274. 
Miller,  175. 

Mind,  Unconscious,  235,  405;   Uncon- 
scious Soul  of  World,  239. 
Miracles,    Pure     Naturalism,    the     Sole 
Ground  of  a  priori  Objections  to,  340; 
Second  Causes,  340  ;  Deistic    Ration- 
alism, 343  ;  Theislic  Rationalism,  345. 
Ministry,  Special,  296-298. 
Modern  Thought,  1 84-186. 
Mohammedanism,  225,  241. 
Monism,  211,  217,  227,  329. 
Monophysitism,  463. 
Monotheism,  220,  276. 
Montanists,  128. 
Monasticism,  292. 
Moody,  244. 
Moralism,  278,  28S,  448. 
Moral  Argument,  the,  210. 
Morality,  284  sqq. 
Moral  Order  of  the  World,  211 
Moravians,  465. 
Moses,  90. 

Mueller,  Julius,  401,  409. 
Musaeus,  3S6. 
Mystical  Feeling,  51,  83. 
Mystical  Spirit,  174. 
Mystical  Theology,  68,  83,  128. 
Mysticism,  ?>t,  sq.,  292;  True  and  False, 
273  ;   True,  274,  276,  314  sq.,  375. 


INDEX. 


497 


Mystic,  149. 

Mystics,  205,   215,   254,  413;  Puri   and 

Mixti,  273. 
Myths,  281,  326,  335,  436. 

Naturalism,  60,  68  ;  Pure,  228,  441. 

Natural  Religion,  249  ;  Defects   of,  250. 

Nature,  Plastic,  238. 

Natural  and  Supernatural,  341. 

Necessary  Ideas,  339. 

Necessity,  244. 

Necessity,  Metaphysical,  268. 

Necessity,  Physical,  268. 

Necessity,  Logical,  203,  268. 

Nescience,  206. 

Nescience,  Absolute,  51,  206,  249,  281. 

Nestorianism,  464. 

Nestorius,  115. 

New  Testament,  100,  sq.,  107,  145,  147, 

155,269,  377. 
New  Religion,  the,  244. 
New  Wisdom,  the,  54,  56,  194  sq.,  339, 

399,  404,  459. 
Nice,  Council  of,  115,  137,  154. 
Nihilism,  329. 
Nominalists,  205. 
Nonnus,  160. 

Objective,  the,  473. 

Objective   Truth,  Certainty  of,  106,  153, 
155;  Individual,  106,  133. 

Oetinger,  60,  197. 

Oikonomia,  471. 

Old  Catholic  Church,  the,  41,  78  sqq. 

Old  Testament,    lOO  sq.,    109  sqq.,   129 
155.  253,  269,  288,  341. 

Old  Wisdom,  195,  399  sq.,  404. 

Omniscience,   Not  Knowing   Itself   In- 
conceivable, 239. 

Ontological  Proof,  202. 

Oosterzee,  379,  384. 

Optimism,  237. 

Opus  Operatum,  the,  41,    81,   311,  392, 
sq.,  400,  409,  445  ;  A  Figment,  424. 

Origen,  160^17.,  162,  215. 

Origin  of  Evil,  336. 

Orthodox,  the,  184,  260. 

Orthodoxy,  Lifeless,  158,  260. 

Osiander,  371. 
32 


Pancosmism,  63,  217,  219,  228,  350,  395. 

Pantheism,  63,  65,  174, 194,204,  210,213, 
216,  227,  229  sq.;  Destroys  All  Enthu- 
siasm and  Hope,  and  in  Conflict  with 
Rational  Thought  and  Feeling,  231, 
234,  448,  461,  477  ;  With  Prayer,  232  ; 
Unsatisfactory,  63 ;  Pessimistic,  233  ; 
Antagonistic  to  the  Bible,  234  sq.  ; 
The  Heathen  Idea  in  Scientific  Form, 
240;  Naturalistic,  241  j^.,  247  ;  De- 
nies Creation  and  Miracles,  247,  250, 
323.  345.  406  sq.  ;  Ideal,  254  ;  Old 
Heathen  Idea,  261,  264,  281,  317,322,; 
Latest  Attempt,  323,  329,  339,  342, 
350,  404  sq.,  406,  423  ;  Delusive  Fas- 
cination of,  229  sq.;  Suppresses  the 
Noblest  Impulses,  230  sq. 

Papacy,  81,  85,  119,  125,  128;  Theory 
of,  154. 

Papal  Infallibility,  81. 

Paphnutius,  137  sq. 

Papists,  no,  127. 

Pascal,  162,  180. 

Pastoral  Theology,  II9. 

Paul,  213;  His  Testimony,  361. 

Pelagianism,  82,    174,   194,  403,  455  sq., 

Ml- 

Pelagius,  417. 

Pentecost,  81,  92,  100,  126,  313,  340. 

Period,  155,  162. 

Period,  Apologetic,  161. 

Period,  Polemic,  162. 

Period,  Scholastic,  163. 

Personal  God,  81,  192,  212,  242. 

Personal  Experience,  the  Source  and 
Centre  of  Theological  Thought,  453. 

Personal  Immortality,  241  sq.,  280,  304. 

Personality,  244,  280,  31 1  ;  Ethical,  438  ; 
Moral,  259 ;  Personal  Only  can  Com- 
mune with  and  Help  the  Personal,  135, 
401  ;  Only  Subject  or  Object  of  Love, 
217  ;  Of  God  and  Man,  420. 

Pessimism,  61,  233,  236  sq. 

Philosophy,  242. 

Philosophy,  Speculative,  24,  60,  63. 

Philosophy,  Absolute  Idealism,  173,  279, 

447- 
Philosophy,  Ancient,  216. 
Philosophy,  Cartesian,  172,  278. 


498 


INDEX. 


Philosophy,  Christian,  25,  339,  408,  463. 
Philosophy,  Critical,  173,  206,  20S,  240, 

247. 
Philosophy,  Darwinian,  236;   A  Failure, 

22,1- 

Philosophy,  Deistic,  40S. 

Philosophy,  Egoistic,  173,  279. 

Philosophy,  Faith,  the,  208. 

Philosophy,  Grecian,  191. 

Philosophy,  Heathen,  215. 

Philosophy,  Human,  191. 

Philosophy,  Identity,  173,  299,  447. 

Philosophy,  Kantian,  279. 

Philosophy,  Leibnitz-Wolfian,  278. 

Philosophy,  Modern,  186,  195. 

Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious,  235,  447; 
Opposed  to  Materialistic  Evolution, 
236. 

Philosophy,  Pantheistic,  408,  441  ;  Com- 
pleted, 65  sq. 

Philosophy,  Positive,  194,  196,242,440; 
Unsatisfactory,  64,  65,  68,  408. 

Philosophy,  Sensational,  441. 

Philosophy,  Theistic,  230. 

Physical  Necessity,  203,  234,  268. 

Physical  Theologists,  209. 

Pietism,  31  sq.,  75  sq.,  177  sq.,  260;  Its 
Defects,  178,  454. 

Pietists,  31,  38,  174,  179,  273,  314,  408. 

Pistis,  471. 

Plato,  190,  227,  363,  442. 

Platonism,  191  sq.,  193,  215. 

Polemic,  153,  162. 

Poly  carp,  160. 

Polytheism,  216,  220,  278,  406. 

Pope,  the,  40,  81,  87,  ^2  sq.,  ICX),  117, 
121,  123,  127  sq.,  136  sq.,  139  sq., 
140  sq.,  300,  402;  Infallibility  of,  81. 

Post-Reformation  Structures,  185,  220; 
Era,  no. 

Positivists,  236,  406. 

Power,  Moral,  204,  400. 

Pre-Adamic,  365. 

Practical  Theology,  17. 

Predestinarianism,  Absolute,  396,  398; 
Leads  to  Pantheism,  406. 

Predestination,  455  sq. 
Predestination,  Augustinian,   413  ;    Cal- 
vinistic,  413,  422. 


Presbyterianism,  434. 

Priests,  135. 

Princes,  33,  139. 

Principle  of  Lutheran  Protestantism,  t,t,. 

Principle  of  Lutheran  Reformation,  37, 
47,  55.  69,  102,  163,  165,  171,  175, 
180,  182,  184,  186,  196;  Material  and 
Formal  Aspects,  47  sq.,  55  sq.,  59,  70; 
Relation  of  Scripture  and  Faith,  by, 
130;  Revival  of  Personal  Assurance, 
73,  97  sq.,  164;  All  Elements  of  Evan- 
gelical Piety,  54,  105,  130,  139;  The 
Necessary  Ideas  Springing  from  it, 
53,  55,  248,  258  sq.,  263,  266,  269, 
279,  283,  291,  292,  293,  296,  306,  310, 

3 '8,  333.  37o>  374,  39°,  395,  39^  sq., 
400  sq.,  423,  430 ;  Affinity  with 
Science,  430;  Germ  of  Impulse  to 
Science,  71,72;  Its  Method  Similar 
to  Modern  Science,  437 ;  Germ  of  a 
True  Christology,  461  ;  its  Realism, 
198  5^.,  205  sq.,2\^;  Great  Charac- 
teristic, 131 ;  Results,  432,  434. 

Private  Confession,  40  ;  Intent  of,  464 ; 
Romish  Abuse,  464. 

Private  Judgment,  84,  87  sq.,  107-125, 
130,  137  sq.,  140,  145,  150,  154  sq. 

Problem,  439. 

Problem  of  Existence,  225,  232  sq.,  235, 
237  sq.,  243  sq. 

Problem  of  Sin,  250,  264. 

Proofs  of  God's  Existence,  329,  445 ; 
Ontological,  329  ;  Cosmological,  209 ; 
Teleological,  209  ;  Moral,  210 ;  Insuffi- 
ciency  of,  210  sq. 

Prophets,  135. 

Protestantism,  176. 

Protestants,  163. 

Providence,  Deistic  Denial  of,  224  sq. 

Psychological  Development,  20,  47. 

Psychological  Discoveries,  441. 

Pure  Doctrine,  the,  70,  158,  171. 

Pure  Gospel,  38. 

Pure  Naturalism,  441;   Empirical,  184, 

444,  447- 
Purgatory,  81. 

Quia  and  Quatenus,  31. 

Rationalism,  67    sq.;  Skeptical,  158, 


INDEX. 


499 


172,  175  sq.,  177;  Vulgar,  182;  Nega- 
ting, 184,  241,  276,  315,  350,  408,446 
sq.;  Deistic,  172,  340,  343;  Theistic, 
340,  345>  348,  359.  361 ;  All  its  Efforts 
Unsatisfactory,  66-68. 

Rationalists,  66,  207,  275. 

Realism,  53,59,  193,  216,  317. 

Realism,  Biblical,  53  ;  Insisted  on  by 
Luther,  52,  54,  59. 

Real  Presence,  the,  456 ;  A  Pledge  of 
Grace,  456. 

Reason,  21,  67;  Relation  to  Faith,  221  ; 
Receptivity  not  Productivity,  21,  133. 

Redemption,  not  Necessary,  yet  Certain, 
268. 

Reformation,  163;  Early  Days  of,  169, 
171, 174, 177,  179,  185,  194, 195,  205: 

■    Great  Characteristic,  13 1. 

Reformed  Church,  20,  170. 

Reformers,  Method  of,  t^t,,  55,  150,  153 
sq.,  168,  170,  174,  207. 

Regeneration,  166;  Passivity  of,  410 ; 
Activity  in,  423  sq. 

Religio,  Derivations  of,  277. 

Religion,  62;  Divisions  of,  278;  Defin- 
itions of,  278,  282,  288;  Embraces 
Knowledge,  Feeling,  Action,  287, 
289;  Nature  of,  277;  Scripture  Desig- 
nations of,  278. 

Religion,  Catholic,  219. 

Religions,  the  Only  Two,  233,  241  ;  the 
New,  242 — of  India,  262. 

Revelation,  133,  155. 

Revelation,  Jewish,  191. 

Revelation,  General,  65. 

Revelation,  Special,  266,  333,  34S ;  Ne- 
cessary, 132  sq.,  134;  Certain,  54,  57, 
65,67,68,  108;  Reasonable,  173,  210, 
443  sqq.;  Relation  to  Reason,  333 :  A 
Priori  Objections,  337,  351 ;  Need  only 
Wait,  364 ;  Harmony  will  Appear, 
364 ;  Analogies,  365  ;  Slow  Processes, 
366  ;  Enlarge  the  View,  367  ;  Desira- 
ble, 436  sq. ;  Necessary,  349,  356  sq., 
371,  374;  Personal  Subjects,  406; 
Acts  of  Will  Self-Evidencing,  263 ; 
Historical,  316;  Not  Promote  Super- 
stition, 356. 

Remorse,  438. 


Researches,  Ethical,  441  sq. 
Responsibility,    437    sqq.;  Moral,   244; 

Denial  of,  244  sqq. 
Return  to  the  Principle  of  Reformation, 

Benefits  of,  425,  429  ^q. ;  Results,  432, 

434,  182-186. 
Romanism,  81,  310,  391  sq.,  401. 
Romanists,  36,  97,    106,   127,    129,  138, 

146,  149,  413,  455. 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  40,  80,  128  sq., 

130,  153.  155,  462. 
Rome,  84,  144,  167,  462. 
Rothe,  373,  382. 
Rule  of  Failh,   153,   155  sq.,  379;   Pre- 

Reformation  Theories  of — the  Roman, 

126,  138,    154;     Mystical  and   Bibli- 
cist,    126   sqq.;  Of  the    Reformation, 

127,  156. 
Ruysbroek,  274. 

Sacred  Scriptures,  Canonicityof,  138 ; 
Inspiration  of,  155;  Certainty  and  In- 
telligibility of,  55,  84;  Comfort  of,  91, 
93,  106,  108,  166  sq.;  Self-Interpre- 
ting, 31,  53,  107,  127;  Sensum  Liter- 
alem  and  Inner  Revelation,  iiOj 
Light  in  Darkness,  ill,  116;  Only 
Can  Comfort,  122;  The  Credo,  121  ; 
Most  Clear  and  Certain,  54,  115,  120 
sq.,  \2i,sq.;  All  Other  Books  Delu- 
sive, 122;  Touchstone,  115,  119,  123, 
128;  Sufficient,  113,  114;  Rule  of 
Faith,  125  sq.,  229,  131  ;  Means  and 
Rule,  129  sq.,  131  sq.,  133^17.,  142; 
Self-Criticising  and  Self-Interpreting, 
\i^1  sq. ;  Self-Evidencing,  46,  79,99, 
148,  158;  Authoritative,  155;  In- 
spired, 155  ;  Perfect  Revelation,  133, 
278;  Relation  to  Saving  Faith,  53,  57 
sq.,  72,  76  sq.,  131,  149  ;  Cannot  Con- 
tradict IL  150,  sq.,  153,  156,  161,  162, 
168,  189;  Divine  and  Human  Ele- 
ments in  It,  371. 

Salvation,  Assurance  of  (See  Assurance 
of  Salvation) ;  A  Personal  Matter,  97  ; 
The  Substance  of  the  Gospel  Revela- 
tion, 73-78. 

Sabbath,  the,  40. 

Saints,  Worship  of,  81,  91,  216. 


500 


INDEX. 


Samaritans,  153  sq. 
Sanctification,  166. 
Saving  Faith,  Precedes  Science,  163,  165, 

178;  The  Point  of  Certainty  in,  57. 
Saxons,  460. 

Saxony,  The  Electorate  of,  452. 
Schelling,  191,211,  217,  228  sq.,  234,  262. 
Science,    71  ;  Favored   by   Principle   of 
Reformation,  71;  Christian,   90,  131, 
190;  The  Basis  of,  189  sqq. ;  Relation 
to  the  Personal,  262  ;  To  Faith,  320  ; 
Must    Start    from   Faith,  328  sq.;  Its 
Function,  325. 
Schleiermacher,  180  sq.,  475. 
Schmalcald  Articles,  33,  452. 
Schmucker,  Dr.  S.  S.,43. 
Scholasticism,  163,  165. 
Scholastics,  169,  205,  215,  254. 
Scholastic  System,  403  ;  The   Lutheran, 

407. 
School,  the,  242. 
School,  Alexandrian,  161. 
School,  Cartesian,  279. 
School,  Fichtean,  291. 
School,  Hegelian,  120,  217. 
School,  Leibnitz-Wolfian,  172. 
School,  Kantian,  217,  279. 
School,  Schleiermacher,  280. 
School,  Schelling,  217,  228  sq.,  234,  279. 
School,  Sensational,  242. 
School,  Skeptical,  361. 
School,  Theistic,  346. 
School,  High,  124. 
Scotus,  Erigena,  162,  254. 
Schopenhauer,  211,  233,  235,  251. 
Scriver,  175. 
Seckendorf,  470. 
Shakespeare,  443. 
Shedd,  Dr.,  41,   152  sq.,    158  sq.,  161, 

163,  192,  198,  338. 
Sin,  170,  233;  As  Sin,  403;  Not  a  Ne- 
cessity,   397 ;    Not    Necessary   to  the 
Highest    Good,    391 ;    Guilt   of,    396, 
418. 
Skepticism,    Modern,   the  Old   Heathen 

Idea  Developed,  442. 
Sophia,  471. 
Soterology,  478. 
Soteriology,  42,  479,  481,  484  sq. 


Spener,  29,  31,  38,  105,  176,  183,  236, 
259,  274  sq.,  424,  453. 

Speculative,  the,  24,  163,  171. 

Spinoza,  21 1,  217,  228,  234,  396. 

Spire,  Diet  of,  30,  146.  • 

Spirit,  True  and  False,  127;  The  Cos- 
mical,  191  ;  The  Holy,  191  ;  The 
Mystical,  174. 

Spiritual  Realism,  65. 

Spirituality,  True,  245. 

Stier,  389. 

Stoics,  192,  227. 

Strauss,  174,  247,  357. 

Subjectivism,  176,  473. 

Substance,  217. 

Supernaturalism,  339;    Mechanical,  184. 

Supernatural  Interpositions,  173. 

Supernaturalists,  275,  343. 

Superstition,  270. 

Suso,  274. 

Symbols,  143  sq.,  145 

Synergism,  417,  420. 

Swiss,  460. 

System  of  Our  Church,  53. 

Systems,  Theological,  175    sq.,  180,  484. 

Systematic,  The,  473. 

Systematic  Theology,  17  sq.,  23  sq.,  50, 
53,  58  sq.,  69 ;  Relation  to  Dogmas, 
421  sqq.;  To  Our  Symbols,  28,30, 
42,  74,  177,  iSi,  183,  196;  True 
Character  of,  26;  Superior  Certainty 
of,  48-54- 

Tauler,  274. 

Teleological  Proof,  217. 

TertuUian,  107,  152. 

Theism,  69;  The  True,  139,  155,241 
sqq.,  247 ;  Accepts  Credibility  of  Mir- 
acles, 247  ;  Christian,  229,  247,  262, 
350 ;  Defective,  248  ;  Inseparable  from 
Gospel  and  Church,  249  ;  Relation  to 
Ethics,  252-254,  259;  Connection 
with  Saving  Faith,  263;  Only  Satis- 
factory World-view,  264,  317,  338  sq., 

342,  345.  359- 
Theology,  Teutonica,  274. 
Theology,  Rationalistic,  the,  180. 
Theology,  Philosophical,  180-182. 
Theology,  Emotional,  182. 


INDEX. 


501 


Theology,  Mediating,  184. 

Theology,  Confessional,  1S4. 

Theology,  Symbolistic,  1845^. 

Theology,  Older,  the,  217. 

Theology  of  Nature  and  Revelation. 
366. 

Theology,  Systematic,  the,  377. 

Theology,  Mystical,  68,  83,  128. 

Theories  of  Assurance  of  Salvation,  441. 

Theories,  Calvinistic,  41 1. 

Theories,  The  Lutheran,  411. 

Theories,  Strict  Lutheran,  422. 

Theories,  Melanchthonian,  417. 

Theories,  Augustinian,  413,  420;  One- 
sided, 420;  Deistical  and  Pantheisti- 
cal Tendencies,  421. 

Theories,  Pelagian,  421  ;  Deistical, 
421. 

Theories,  True,  the.  From  Principle  of 
Reformation,  422. 

Theory  of  Lutheranism,  Fundamental 
Conception  of,  450;  Characteristic  of 
451  ;   Modifications  of,  455-460. 

Theory  of  Evolution,  447. 

Theosophy,  In  the  Good  and  Bad  Sense, 
212. 

Tholuck,  389. 

Thomas  a  Kempis,  274. 

Thomasms,  459. 

Thought,  235.' 

Thought,  Modern,  184,  186. 

Thought,  Rational,  231,  232. 

Thought,  Christian,.  464. 

Torgau,  ^^. 

Tradition,  108,  155,  163. 

Transcendence,  The  Divine,  213,  229, 
235.  33^  SI/.,  4S1. 

Trinity,  The,  169  si/.,  193,  220,  481  S(/. 

True  Christianity,  Arndt's,  175. 

Truth,  Inner  Certainty  of,  136,  179  s^., 
199  sq. 

Truth,  Universal,  i68. 

Truth,  Personal  Spirit,  312,  360,  430. 

Type,  The  True  Lutheran,  43,  99,  394, 
446,  479,  486. 

Ulrici,  50,  52,  200. 
Unbelief,  270. 
Unconscious  Mind,  235. 


Understanding,  79,  412. 

Understanding,  The  Logical,  29,  171, 
173,  177,  207,  221  sq.,  440,  444,  447 
sq. 

Understanding,  Skeptical,  50,  62  sq.; 
Unsatisfactory,  64  sq.  ;  No  Notion  of 
Essence  of  Faith,  63,  70. 

Union  of  Dogmatics  and  Ethics,  20. 

Union  of  Faith  and  Freedom,  46. 

Union  of  Divinity  and  Humanity,  Re- 
vealed in  Christ,  75,  129,  334. 

Union  of  Faith  and  the  Word,  56,  84, 
90,  97,  120.  126,  131,  148,  149  sq., 
153,  249;  Pre-Reformation  View,  126; 
Reformation  Idea,  271.' 

Union  of  Freedom  and  the  Creed,  42- 
44. 

Union  of  the  Spirit  and  Scripture,  91, 
155,288,318,371    sqq.,  369,  462. 

Union  of  Faith  and  Truth,  157. 

Union  of  Divine  Infinity  and  Spiritual- 
ity, 203  sqq.,  213,  317;  Partially  Ap- 
prehended, 215  sq.  ;  Determinate 
State  of  Being,  215. 

Union  of  Experience  and  Speculation, 
178.  ' 

Union  of  Freedom  and  Authority,  291  ; 
Denial  of,  292. 

L^nion  of  Freedom  and  Dependence,  264, 

403- 
Union  of  Divine  Grace  and  the  Human 

Will,  410,  419. 
Union  of  God  and  Man,  421  ;    Through 

Principle  of  Reformation,  423. 
Union  of  Theology  and  Philosophy,  314, 

432- 

Union  of  Knowledge  and  Faith,  164. 

Union  of  Principle,  Doctrine,  157  sq., 
170. 

Union  of  Knowledge  and  Mystery,  201. 

Union  of  Infinite  Attributes,  202. 

Union  of  Christianity  and  Human  Na- 
ture, 446. 

Union  of  Justice  and  Love,  353. 

Union   of   Conservatism    and    Progress, 

45-47- 
Union  of  Faith  and  Science,  69-71. 
Unitarianism,  220. 
Universal  Priesthood,  84,   in,  140  sq., 

144  sq.,  177,  296  sq..  29S. 


502 


INDEX. 


Universal  Skepticism,  355,  36S. 

Universal  Truth,  168. 

Unity  of  God,  193;  Numerical,  219; 
Not  Oneness,  220 ;  Concrete,  220 ; 
Proof  of,  221;  A  Reason  Conception, 
222;  Demanded  by  Reason,  219; 
Abuse  of,  225. 

Unity  of  the  Two  Aspects  of  the  One 
Great  Principle  of  the  Reformation, 
126,  I2g  sq. ;  From  the  Same  Spirit, 
148;  United  in  the  Production  of  the 
Newr  Man,  149;  Affinity,  151  ;  Not 
Even  in  Conflict  with  Reason,  Much 
Less  with  Each  Other,  152. 

Unity  of  Faith  and  Apostolic  Testi- 
mony, 153. 

Von  Hartman,  206,  211,  233,  235, 
237,  262. 

Waldenses,  36,  126,  466. 
Want  of  the  Day,  Practicability  of  Meet- 
ing This,  435. 


Wesley,  244. 

Whitefield,  244. 

Will,  The  Theory  of,  310. 

Will,  Blind,  235. 

Witness  of  the  Spirit,  51,  65,  76,  89,  91, 
97,  99;  Characteristic  of  New  Testa- 
ment, 92,  100  sqq.,  106,  112,  121,  129, 
130.  134  sqq.,  137  sqq.,  l^O  sq.,  166 
sqq.,  178,  179,  210,  216. 

Word,  The,  201. 

Word  and  Sacraments,  Roman  Idea, 
313;  Mystical  View,  315,  318,390; 
Efficacy  of,  212,  415,  452,  456,  469; 
True  View,  Word  and  Spirit  Not 
Identical,  369  ;   Lutheran  View,  42. 

Worship  of  God,  the  Rejected,  246. 

Worship  of  Humanity  Inculcated,  246. 

Worship,  Religious,  the,  306 ;  The 
Christian  Idea  of,  309;  The  Greai 
Deviations  from  It,  307  ;  The  Super- 
stitions, 308;  Church  and  Priests, 
308 ;  Mystical,  314. 

Wuttke,  254,  259  sq.,  261,  284,  293. 


DATE  DUE 


f 

. ' "   - 

'*-^^ 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U    S    A. 

MS 


Princeton  Theoloqical  ,^^'S}!}?!^,:,^l^l.fJ\^^ 


012  01255  0937 


